Chapter 1 - An Icky/Beautiful One

Spencer walked into the bullpen like every other day and threw his messenger bag on his desk as he sat down to file away cases from the last week. One case in Oregon, and two consulting from Quantico. It was a busy week, but thankfully each case ended well. Which almost never seemed to happen, he thought, at least not with her. It had been almost two years and he still couldn't get her out of his mind. Maeve, her name still in his mind as Penelope walked into the bullpen in a lime green dress with matching heals.

"Ooh nice sweater vest, Reid" she said to him, drawing him from his trance thinking about her.

"Oh, um, thanks. Yeah I got it last week cause one that I had for a few years was wearing out and..." he chuckled nervously, "but yeah, thanks Garcia." He always had trouble taking a complement, even if it was from someone as close to him as P.

"Well, crime fighters we have a case, and it's an icky one if one can be even more icky than normal. Round table in ten." Penelope said as Kate and JJ walked in. The three girls went over to the coffee and started to chat. Morgan walked in and barely noticed the rest of the team was there as he was glued to his phone screen talking to Savannah. She did have a hold on him no one else had ever had, Spencer thought to himself. He was happy for the team. Rossi just found out he had a daughter, Hotch had his son Jack, Kate had Meg and her husband, Garcia had Sam and as always Derek was by her side, Morgan now had even found a relationship not just a one night stand. The only person Reid could see was struggling was JJ, and he knew she wanted to work past her abduction and be focused on her family. It was just hard for her, Spencer understood. Hell, she was doing better than he did after he was abducted by Tobias. But regardless, he could sympathize.

Speaking of an abduction, Spencer thought as he walked into the meeting room. Penelope started talking as everyone walked in "This is Eleanor Weston, she was taken from her Tampa, Florida home last night. She is just two months shy of her 18th birthday which is why we are still able to treat this like a child abduction and act so quickly."

"I get this is serious, but why are we being called in? How is this serial?" Kate asked meekly.

"Because this is where it gets icky, my wonderful family..." Garcia said as she looked away from the screen while another picture pulled up.

"This note was found in her room, which is where she was taken from by the way. There was a note found like this last year but the girl, also almost 18, was never found and the local police don't want to repeat that."

The note was covered in blood and looked to be written with it as well. "She is mine, try to catch me if you can. Save her. She will die if you don't find me in three days. She is special." Spencer read from his file. "He is clearly disorganized from how he rights. Were any fingerprints or DNA found at the scene?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh, tons. But they don't match anyone in the system so he's probably new to this kind of um...thing" Garcia said with disgust dripping from her words.

"Got it. So, do we believe him or is he just in this to cause fear or do we think she's still alive?" Morgan asked.

"Not sure yet. Wheels up in 30." Aaron said as he left the room.

JJ chimed in sarcastically, "Alright, let's go to Florida. Yay."

"Heh, be careful my loves. Come back to me!" Penelope said as everyone left the room.

"Oh baby girl you know how I do!" Derek said with his grin he saved just for Garcia.

Spencer was the last one to leave the room, he stood there looking at the picture of Eleanor, she had long curly brown hair and she had the most piercing dark green eyes. Her skin was so fair but it looked good on her, not sickly pale just light and...what was he doing? He thought to himself. You profile her, you find her, you don't get attached cause they don't all end well he said in his head. But for some reason he couldn't make his feet move, he couldn't turn his head away from the screen where the picture of Ms Weston was. She was beautiful, he thought. Then he realized she was under 18 and he couldn't think that. What was he doing? Losing his mind, obviously, he thought.

"Hey, Spence. You coming?" JJ's voice interrupted his thoughts. Spencer turned his back to the screen and saw her there in the doorway with her go bag over her shoulder waiting on a response from him.

"Hm? Oh, yeah, coming. Just thinking over different ideas about this unsub." He feigned a smile to show that he was fine. JJ was worried he was thinking about her like he did with most cases involving a young brunette woman. But Maeve was the last thing on his mind, actually. He couldn't shake this feeling of guilt for thinking Eleanor was beautiful. Its not like he did anything wrong, he thought, but is that how it starts? Am just as bad as the unsub who took her? His thoughts started to snowball as he got onto the jet and took a seat. No, no, of course not. Just find her and move on to the next case. If this was two months later I wouldn't feel guilty, would I? No. So let it go, he said to himself, yes she's pretty but she's a victim so find the unsub and save her. Save her this time, this time I will he thought.

"Alright, we're all here so let's talk theories." Rossi said as the jet took off and Garcia came up on the laptop and screens. They talked theories the whole way to Tampa and made a game plan of what to do when they got there. Reid and JJ would go to the Weston home and get some clues. Kate and Rossi would talk to Eleanor's parents who she lived with, and Morgan and Hotch would got to the police department and get info on the note and the case from last year. Great plan, Spencer thought to himself, I get to see her home. It'll make me realise she is a victim and that she is a 17 year old girl he shouted at himself in his head. Reid got up to go get some tea and JJ followed him.

"What was that about back at the office? You seemed really fixated on Weston." JJ asked quietly as she came up behind him, so no one else would hear. Out of everyone on the team Spence was like a brother to her and she knew he trusted her and she trusted him as well.

"Hm? Oh um...that. I I um..." Reid stuttered out.

"You know, it's okay to think she's pretty. There's nothing wrong with that. I mean, I met Will on a case Spence."

"Yeah, I guess. She is very pretty. I just want to find her..." he said meekly, "she's only 17 JJ, I feel for her."

"That's good, Reid. Caring hurts but it helps you be better at your job. And she's almost 18, cause I'm guessing you're feeling guilty about thinking she pretty cause she underage?"

"...yeah"

"Well stop." JJ said authoritatively. "You can think she's pretty, has that happened since Maeve? Has anyone caught your eye Spence? Its okay to move on and think someone else is beautiful too. Your not sleeping with this girl you just think she's cute...that's not really what your worried about though, is it?"JJ realized. Reid had just been listening to JJ talk and realized at the same time as her that he felt guilty for thinking another girl was as beautiful, if not more, than Maeve. He sighed...

"The curse of being a profiler, I guess." he said quietly to himself.

"Yeah, I guess. I just want to solve this, I want to save her. I don't even know this girl but I feel like I have to save her..."

"Then let's save her, Spence." JJ said with a smile and put her arm around Reid. They both grabbed their tea and walked back to their seats. Spencer giving Jenifer a look as to say thank you, which she understood. Spencer had been there for her when she had no idea what she was feeling so many times, the least she could do was let him know that it was okay to start moving past Maeve.