Trigger warning: Mentions of blood, guns and death

Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one- Bruce Lee

Everyone turned and looked at Garcia. She looked proud at whatever she had discovered.

"What is it Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"I began looking into Detective Lopez's files earlier. I found that he was also the detective that investigated the death of Jackson, Rachel's brother. I looked at the report in detail and the death was ruled as an accident. I then looked into Detective Lopez's family. I found that Detective Lopez's has a brother that is a member of a gang. His name is Nicolas Lopez and he has been in prison for drug possession and assault. I was able to pull a picture of Nicolas." Garcia said, holding up a picture.

Emily gave a small gasp. "The other day when we went out with Rachel, she approached a man that looked exactly like Nicolas. I remember him even saying that his name was Nicolas. That means that he's been stalking Rachel."

"It goes further back than that. I looked at Nicolas's phone records and it shows that he was at the hospital multiple times. The week it was Henry's birthday, Rachel received some flowers that were delivered by Nicolas dressed as a delivery man. Three days later he was back at the hospital and bumped into Rebecca. And I also found footage that he was at Rachel's apartment this morning dressed as a plumber but he had someone with him. I tried to track his phone but it's off." Garcia said, looking sad that she couldn't help anymore.

JJ thought for a moment then disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later. "I just spoke to Rebecca and asked her about the flowers that Rachel received. Rebecca told me that with the flowers came a note claiming that they were from a family called The Evans."

Spencer froze. "The Evans?"

"Yeah."

Spencer thought for a second. "Garcia, in your findings did you ever come across the name Isabella Lopez?"

"Yes, her name came popping up. She was sent to jail a few weeks ago after being arrested for child abuse. And happens to be the sister of both Martin and Nicolas. Why?"

"A few months ago, Rachel found the Evan's child was being abused by Isabella Lopez. I helped watch the child's behaviour with Isabella,and with the help of Rachel, we found that Isabella was abusing the child. Isabella thought it was Rachel's fault that she was found out." Spencer said.

"From what we can see, the stalking started to happen around the time Isabella was put into jail. Her brothers must want revenge for what Rachel did and it was the perfect plan. With Martin as a detective, it means that Nicolas was always one step ahead and as a result knew that we were doing and moved." Hotch said. "I'm going to go and interrogate Martin with Gideon. I want the rest of you to see if you can find a place where Nicolas would be holding Rachel."

Everyone nodded and began to move apart from Spencer.

"Hotch, I want to be there when you question Martin." Spencer said.

Hotch turned around. "Spencer, you are too involved now, and you are going to allow your emotions to get the better of you. If you want, you can watch but you can not by any means, help in the questioning."

Spencer nodded and walked to go and watch the questioning. Despite wanting to listen to what was happening, Spencer's mind wandered into thoughts. A hand on his shoulder was what brought him back to reality. It was JJ.

Spencer gave JJ a watery smile, as he tried to keep the tears at bay. JJ watched her best friend battle with his emotions and found tears coming to her eyes. It was so unlike Reid to lash out at someone, especially turning violent and it hurt her knowing that Spencer was being torn apart. She had seen for herself the way Rachel and Spencer were around each other and her suspicions where that either one of them had feelings for each other.

"I was planning on taking Rachel to a restaurant today and telling her everything. Everything about Maeve. I was then going to ask her out and seeing how those things went I wanted to ask her to be my girlfriend. But now I might not even have the chance to tell her how I feel about her. I feel like all the women that I want to pursue something romantic, either don't like me or end up dead. Maybe the problem is me." Spencer whispered, finally allowing the tears to fall.

JJ looked at her best friend and wrapped her arms around Spencer and held him as he sobbed. "Spencer, Rachel loves you. You're not the problem,it's not your fault Maeve dead, it was her stalker. It's not your fault that Rachel was taken. How was you supposed to know that something like this would happen?"

Spencer just sobbed in response.

"Tell me a typical weekend for you and Rachel." JJ said hoping that would help Spencer calm down.

"Umm… I would go to her apartment and we would have breakfast together. We would then go to the park and while Rachel would play with Jet, I would watch and read a book. Sometimes, I would also play with Jet but most times it's Rachel. We then get hungry and we would go to a cafe and get something to eat. Rachel hates it when I pay so we take turns paying. Later we would get groceries for mine and her apartment. We would then go back to Rachel's apartment and have some dinner and then watch a movie. If it's late then I would stay.

The next day, Rachel and I would go to Hannah's house and have a family dinner. It's really nice. Even though Rachel doesn't have any biological family, it's nice that she has people that she can call family. When I went there for the first time, they made me feel welcome and were really nice. I became close to Hannah's husband, and he taught me a lot. One weekend he even took me fishing and we talked about different things…" Spencer trailed off now calm.

JJ gave a weak smile. It was nice to know that Spencer had people to talk to outside of work.

The side door opened and Hotch walked in. "Martin has confessed to planning the kidnapping and aiding the kidnapping. He gave the current location of Rachel. He also gave another confession. Martin also said the accident that caused Jackson's death was manslaughter. He said the road was indeed slippery but it wasn't for Jackson, it was for a rival gang. When Nicolas saw that it wasn't the rival gang member but a police officer, he panicked and called Martin. Either way, he's going to be in prison for a long time or for life."

"Wow, I never expected that to be honest." JJ said.

"Hotch can I come to the take down? I want to be there."Spencer said looking up at his boss.

Hotch nodded.

Rachel groaned as the bag was taken off her face. She found herself tied to a chair with Nicolas standing in front of her.

"Look who finally turned up?" Nicolas snarled.

Rachel whimpered, causing Nicolas to smirk.

"I like seeing you in pain. It reminds you that you're not perfect. You have faults just like everyone else." Nicolas said as he tugged Rachel's hair causing Rachel to scream.

Nicolas gave a humorous laugh. "You think you can play God? You think you have the right to ruin someone's life at the click of the fingers! Well have news for you pretty face, you're not God and you must pay for playing God."

Nicolas pulled out a gun causing Rachel to scream, tears running down her face. "Remember Isabella Lopez? The girl now in jail because of you? That's my little sister and like the big brother I am, I had to go and deal with the bullies. Just like your big brother Jackson did.

That being said, he's not going to come and save you now is he? Of course he's not, how could he? He's dead. And guess who killed him? I did! I mean it was by accident but I'm glad he's gone.

So that just leaves you and me."

Rachel cried.

Every possible thing that could go wrong was happening.

Rachel began to plead for her life, saying over and over that she was sorry but her words fell on deaf ears.

Nicolas raised his gun smiling as he did so.

"Drop the gun Nicolas, it's over!" Hotch yelled. "Step away from Rachel."

JJ,Gideon, Morgan and Spencer had their guns trained on Nicolas.

"What, this gun?" Nicolas said as he fired the gun in his hand above Rachel's head.

The sound of the gun made Rachel jump in the chair caused her to whimper in pain as the rope tied around her dug into her side.

"We will shoot you!" Morgan threatened.

"Hmm, I'm sure you will. I have a deal and you can get this doll face." Nicolas said. "And if you say no, I'll just use this bad boy," and he fired a bullet next to Rachel's leg.

"What's the deal?" Gideon asked.

"I know Dr Reid is here, I mean he wouldn't miss this chance to save Doll face. I want him and you get this girl for free.

Spencer moved into view and lowered his gun, much to the dismay of the rest of the agents.

"Fine, you can have me. But give Rachel back first." Spencer said, hands up in the air. He looked at Rachel and saw the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy from screaming and he could tell that Rachel wanted to sleep.

Nicolas turned in the direction of Spencer and smiled. He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Spencer looked down expecting to feel blood or pain but he felt nothing. He looked and saw that Nicolas was on the floor with a bullet in his head. Emily stood where Nicolas once was, smok still coming from her gun, that had fired the shot.

With tears in his eyes, Spencer ran to Rachel and quickly untied her. There were many knots and with a knife that was lying around Spencer cut Rachel loose. She fell into his arms and clung unto him for dear life. Tears streamed down both of their cheeks and Spencer held Rachel.

The rest of the team watched their genius, be reunited with his friend and brought everyone to tears. In so many ways, they knew they had come close to finding Rachel dead and knew that Spencer would have gone off the rails.

JJ went over to Emily and gave her a hug. Gideon had gone out to call the EMTs and the local police. Hotch and Morgan went over to Nicholas's lifeless body. Everyone was glad that the horrible piece of work was dead.

The team didn't interrupt the reunion and went around doing different things.

When Rachel had stopped crying, because she physically couldn't, Spencer pulled her out of the hug.

"It's over Rae, it's over." He whispered.

She gave a weak nod and rested her head on Spencer's chest. "Thank you, Spency."

Morgan approached Spencer. "Hey Spencer, you need to let the doctors look over Rachel."

Spencer nodded and placed Rachel on a stretcher and slowly walked away.

"No, Spencer." Rachel called weakly holding her hand out to Spencer, who took Rachel's hand and held it all the way to the ambulance.

Morgan gave a sad smile as JJ approached him. "Rachel is already finding it hard to be separated from Reid."

"What do you expect? She has just gone through some traumatic stuff. She's the closest to Spencer here and she needs him right now. Come on let's go to the hospital."