"Look, look! The trackers on the move!" Emily called pointing towards the computer screen that had long been forgotten replaced by fighting over snacks.

"JJ pass me the popcorn things are about to get interesting" Morgan called from his seat lounging over two wheelie chairs.

JJ smiled wickedly, throwing popcorn on Morgan. Who elaborately tried to dodge the bombardment that both JJ and Emily were throwing his way. Causing him to roll off his chair with a thump. All the while Garcia giggled loudly watching as Morgan got pelted with corn after corn, every hit being acted out as if a mortal wound until the floor was nothing more than a popcorn covered mess.

"I surrender I surrender" Pleaded Morgan raising his hands above his head.

"What do you say special agent Prentice? Think we should go easy on this UNSUB?" JJ asked in her best Hotch impression.

"I don't know…" Emily responded incredulously. The pair grabbed handfuls of popcorn rearming for another round of attacks, Morgan two scooped up handfuls of corn from the floor and used his abandoned chairs as cover about to descend into another round of warfare stopped only by a yell from Garcia.

"The trackers stopped!"

"You run in, drop off your bags and grab what you need I'll park up and meet you inside when I'm done" Erin instructed.

"Okay, I'm on it" Spencer jumped out of the car awkwardly crossing the road to his building.

Strange, he thought as he looked up at the building not a single light was on. They can't all be out he questioned spanning the darkened windows. He walked into the lobby nobody in sight.

"Where is everyone?" He muttered to himself, normally the lobby was a hive of action with people coming and going at all hours, checking their mail slots and catching up with passing neighbours. Yet the room was empty not an echo of a person in sight. Spencer wasn't the most social person by any means but the sudden absence of a block full of his neighbours had his tummy in knots.

"It must be later than I thought" He whispered trying to calm himself as he walked over to his mailbox. Pulling out a full stack of unopened post. That seems to be more than normal he noted folding the pile into his bag to look through later. Turning to head to the stairs he heard the front door being pushed open behind him and the clipping of high heeled shoes coming towards him.

"Is it always this quiet?" Erin asked scanning the room.

"Never like this, maybe we'll find someone on the way to my apartment" Spencer suggested leading the way upstairs. "I'm on the third floor, the lift has been broken since I moved in two years ago so we'll have to take the stairs" he stated, opening the door to the stairwell for Erin, only for the pair to walk into complete darkness.

Spencer fumbled to find the light switch, letting out a relieved breath as he found it with the help of Strauss using her phone as a flashlight. He pushed the switch up and then down again when nothing happened he flicked it over and over again beginning to panic.

"Somethings not right here Spencer" Erin called breaking him out of his hopeless endeavour try to get the lights working. She continued "no people and now no lights" Before she could finish, a scraping sound rumbled down from the top of the stairwell reverberating off of the walls to make a deafening wave of noise "get behind me" Erin shouted, her voice taking on a worried note, as she instinctively clutched her side subconsciously going for a gun that no longer hung from her hip. With her other hand she reached out in the direction of where she last saw Spencer, upon feeling the fabric of his jumper she pulled him behind her in one smooth motion. They stayed frozen there waiting for the approach of whatever was making the sounds when it cut off completely leaving them in silence once more.

Spencer's mind raced with possibilities for what could be happening, but it was hard to focus on anything but the fear that was growing in his gut spreading like branches on a tree it was spreading through his body. The darkness around them put him on edge flinching as he felt Erin move to face him. Holding her phone up as a torch he could make out her concerned face.

"Are you okay?" She asked gravely, eyeing him as best she could.

He nodded slowly at her, finding his voice he whispered, "I'm fine it just rattled me that's all" He admitted looking down embarrassed.

"Me two" Erin reassured him. "How about we head straight to my house?" She offered giving Spencer a way out of the situation.

Mustering up his courage he squared his shoulders in much the same way that he'd seen Morgan do when he was about to break down a door. "No, I can do it" He met her gaze trying to wordlessly convey the personal growth this action took for him, running and hiding had been replaced by staying and facing his fears. A change in actions he contributed in no short part to her. She smiled at him seeming to understand his wordless plea. "Just give me a minute" He spoke more to himself than to Erin, he may of come a long way but fear and doubt hadn't completely left him. "Take all the time you need" She responded with pride, noticing his internal struggle she squeezed his hand tightly. "I'm right with you" she added.

He thought it over in him mind trying to come up with something to calm him. After a few seconds a flicker of an idea emerged in his brain.

"Work!" he exclaimed causing Strauss to jump at his sudden alertness.

"What?" She questioned baffled.

"Just had a reassuring thought is all" He explained "here we are jumping to the worst because of what we see at work when there could be a completely innocent explanation for all this, who knows maybe it's just a rare quiet day and maybe the bulbs blown out "

"You have a fair point, we see a lot of twisted things in our job its only logical that our minds should make that kind of conclusion. Where it could be something completely mundane and our brains have us believing we're in a horror movie. Do you know if any of your neighbours have pets?" She asked.

"Yes, I've seen a few dogs and cats in the building, ow and a lady on the second floor has a parrot"

"Then that's what could of made that awful starching sound, A wayward pet scratching to get let in" She played along smiled appreciative of his clear-headedness. "So, do you want to continue?" She prompted.

"If you still don't mind?" He asked kindly not wanting to push Erin any more than she wanted to go.

She nodded her willingness to continue holding up the phone to light the way she took the first step upwards "third floor you said?"

The pair made slow progress up to the third floor hindered by the lack of lighting and Spencer's natural clumsiness. After navigating the staircase, they emerged onto an equally dark corridor as empty as the lobby and as quiet as the staircase.

"This one's mine" Spencer gestured, pulling out his keys to open the door letting Erin step in first. Again, he instinctively tried the light switch and again it did nothing.

"Whatever's happening it's happening to the whole building" He stated letting Strauss flick the light switch a couple of times.

"Grab what you need and let's get out of here" She commanded uneasily hearing the rumbling sound again in the distance. Spencer didn't argue his brave streak running low. The darkness was stifling and repeating the phrase; nothing's happening here, it's all in my mind, was quickly starting to lose effect with every strange occurrence. A warm voice calling his name broke him from his thoughts.

"Somebody's knocking on the door" She supplied in shock regarding the door with mistrust "Let me answer it" She tried to protect him.

"No let me" He whispered "whoever is out there is expecting me to answer seeing as this is my flat after all" When she didn't step aside he tried again "Let me protect you just this once, if it makes you feel better you can stand right behind me" This seemed to persuade her to let him pass just in time to hear another knock come from the door. He summoned up the last of his courage determined to stop harm coming to his mentor. Immediately reprimanding himself for having such grave thoughts, it wasn't normally in his nature to be dramatic heaven knows Garcia had tried to cultivate that side of him to no prevail but with everything happening he allowed himself a few thoughts to slip the net. It's just someone at the door he reminded himself reaching for the handle. He through open the door with as much force as he could muster channelling his inner Morgan. Only to be greeted by the feeble form of Mrs Collins an elderly neighbour he'd spot now and again chatting to anyone within earshot. She squinted at the phone light being pointed at her, clutching an oversized bag to her chest.

"I thought I could hear you come in" She stated triumphantly starting one of her corridor conversations unaware of the absurdity of the situation "This will show Joan, saying my hearings gone to pot, HAH" She rabbited on, attention turning to Erin "And you finally brought your mother" Spencer and Erin opened their mouths to correct her but she continued on without noticing "I'm Mrs Collins I live or should I say lived next door to your boy. Lovely young man he is but I won't keep you we've not got long so I'll say hello and goodbye in one. I'll see you when the buildings reopened" She made to trundle away getting only a couple of steps before Spencer's mind processed all that she had said.

"Mrs Collins, please wait!" He called after her, eager for answers he barrelled into his questions "What's going on here? Where is everyone? Why are the lights not working? And what are those strange sounds?

Mrs Collins face dropped "Good lord honey haven't you had a letter or a visit explaining it all?" She asked, causing Spencer to remember the large stack of unopened post in his bag. Or spoken to anyone? It's all everyone's been talking about the last few days. They found rats in the basement and in the old elevator shaft, not just a few mind you. I talked to Toby who lives on the seventh floor and he spoke to Trisha who lives on the tenth floor and her nephew's friend was the exterminator they called. He said that it's the worst case he's seen, apparently, they chewed through the water pipes meaning no hot water as well as making nests in the generator so no lighting either, one bad thing after another the last few days have been. With this place no longer being liveable everyone's temporary moved out. And I'll tell you, you should of heard the stink people were making about it all. The building manager himself came round to every apartment to deliver the news personally got no end of abuse. Poor man stayed for two rounds of tea and cakes with me bother heading back out. Anyway, today is the last day to collect personal things before they start work on the repairs. I'd get busy packing up if I were you. You remember Arthur who used to live opposite us." She continued without waiting for his response "Well his son's husband is a contractor and he told Alice who lives on the second floor who told me that it's going to take several months just to get rid of the rats and another few months to repair the damage they did. And here I though we lived in a nice clean building but who knows these day" She shook her head, going to pick up her bag to leave.

"Do you need any help Mrs Collins?" Spencer asked reaching for the bag.

"I'm not quite over the hill just yet" She scoffed "It's only the last of my knickknacks ready to put in my new room at my son's place and a couple of little presents for the grandkids any way not heavy in the least bit." She beamed at him "You take care of yourself now love and it was a pleasure meeting you Mrs Reid" She called over her shoulder as she stepped into darkness.

"I'm sorry about her…" Spencer started to apologise thankful for the lack of light to hide his ruby red face.

"Don't worry about her when I first moved to the city as a rookie agent, I lived next to two Mrs Collins types. Used to drop round the best homemade cakes I ever ate" She smiled at the memory. "And at least we know now that you were right nothing scary is going on here just some rodents at work."

After shutting his front door he turned to face Erin, "Looks like I'll be packing more than we expected, would you be okay to drop me off at a nearby hotel, any will do I'm not fussy, I'm sorry but I don't think I'm going to be able to do movie night tonight after all"

"There is no way young man that I'm going to just drop you off at some random hotel to stay at for months on end" She roared "I've got a spare room you can stay with me until everything is sorted out." Seeing him gearing up to politely decline she continued breaking out her best do not challenge me on this stare

"I couldn't possible burden you for that long, you heard Mrs Collins it could be months"

"You are not a burden. It would be my pleasure to offer you the spare room for however long you need. You'd be doing me a favour rattling round my empty house all day, it would be nice to have some company and I can think of no better person. Now you start packing" She coaxed .

"If you're truly sure" He trailed off.

"Of course I am. I won't hear any more objections we've got to pack if we have any hope of a movie night. So, you grab me your suitcase and bags and make piles on what you want to take and I'll pack them into the bags and run them to the car. How's that sound?"

"It sounds great" They shared beaming smiles "Oh and Erin" Spencer called as Erin made to step back "Thank you" He whispered in a heartfelt voice as he encircled her in a hug. Erin laughed into his shoulder "When will you get it through that stubborn head of yours, you have people that love and care about you right here it's okay to ask for help you've just got to let us in, okay?"

"Okay"

"Now let's get packing" She scanned the apartment clapping her hands together with determination.

"You got it" Spencer smiled.

There we go, sorry for the long wait with the pandemic work has pretty much taken over my life for the foreseeable time at least but I wanted to put something up to give people in lock-down something to read. Hope you like it, tell me what you think by reviewing and stay safe.