Spencer Reid

I picked up the scattered papers that littered my desk, pushing them into the file folders in the side drawer.

"Hey, anything on those letters?" Rossi asked as he passed me to the exit.

"Not yet. It's actually really interesting, the letters seemed to have switched tenses now that the letters are addressed to Sabrina, and it's the exact same letter, just now the sender is blaming her too." I said.

"I'm sure it's just a prank one of her old college friends are playing; the humor these kids have these days, you wouldn't believe." he replied as he nodded to me, pressing the elevator button.

"I hope so." I said quietly. As I gathered the rest of my things off of my desk, my phone began to ring. I didn't recognize the number, but picked it up anyways.

"This is Dr. Spencer Reid."

I waited to hear a response, and wondered if this were a prank call. Before I could hang up, however, I heard a loud sound in the background of the phone call.

"Hello?" I spoke into the phone, this time my nerves rising as possible scenarios ran through my head.

"Mommy, the cup is broken again. I don't have socks." I heard through the phone.

My mind immediately thought back to the small girl in Sabrina's arms when she had come into the office this morning, and I spoke quickly.

"Sabrina, is that you?" I gathered my jacket and satchel in my hands quickly as I made my way to the elevator with Rossi. He gave me a questioning look and I shook my head, eyebrows furrowed as I clicked the L button inside the elevator multiple times.

"Yes- I'm sorry, my daughter and I are at home and-" Her soft yet panicked voice cut off as she yelped. "Something's happening, all of the windows in my house are being broken and I had your number-" she completely stopped talking and I looked at my phone.

"Hello? Sabrina?" I tried to call the number back, but was immediately met with Sabrina's voicemail.

I looked over to Rossi and he nodded his head once, indicating he heard.

"If I know one thing about that girl, is that she's tough as hell and most definitely not dramatic," he said, looking at the elevator doors. "She wouldn't have called for nothing."

"Does that mean you could say the same about the letters?" I asked calmly, my mind whirling at the idea of this girl and her daughter getting hurt after seeking out our help.

Rossi shifted his feet as he responded. "I guess we'll see."

* ੈ✩‧₊˚

Rossi and I jumped out of the black SUV after parking it in front of the one story home. Garcia had given me the address earlier when Derek and I had been trying to locate Sabrina.

The house had a small one car garage on the left side of the heavy cherry-wood front door and large jarring windows placed on the right side of front door. Each of the windows had been shattered at the front of the house leaving the curtains to spill out to the outside of the frame and softly bustle against the cold wind.

I walked through one of the broken windows with my gun raised, Rossi opposite of me checking the bedrooms.

"Clear," he called from the back of the house. I walked into the kitchen and saw an abnormally large storage cabinet, pulling on the small knob quickly. My eyes scanned over the cabinet as I looked for any sign of life and I immediately spotted the girls frizzy red hair, her green eyes rimmed with red as she held her daughter in her arms.

She was breathing hard and her face was red as she looked at me, only blinking once.

"Fancy meeting you here," She breathed. I smiled a little as I took her hand to help her out of the cabinet. "It's not MTV, but welcome to my crib." she laughed awkwardly.

Before I could respond to her corny joke, the small girl beside her spoke up.

"This isn't your crib, mommy." she whispered, looking up at Sabrina with confused eyes. "You don't have a crib. Only me?"

Sabrina laughed and wiped her eyes as she replied. "Yes, Hals. Only you had a crib." She looked back at me, her breathing still ragged and her voice raspy.

"Are you okay?" I asked her quietly, as to not alarm her daughter. She only nodded once and looked around quickly at the kitchen, looking for something.

Sabrina's daughter looked up at me and tugged on her mothers arm, making Sabrina kneel down to hear her. "Who is he?" she asked quietly.

I bent down to meet the girl's blue eyes, a small smile on my face. "I'm Spencer. What's your name?"

She looked at Sabrina and then back at me, crossing her legs and twisting her fingers together.

"Hallie." She whispered.

"Hi Hallie, it's nice to meet you. Can you tell me how old you are?" I asked. I watched her slowly hold up her hand and show me the number three. "Wow! You're pretty old," I laughed, and watched her giggle softly.

"I found this over by the door... is it yours?" I held up a small doll and handed it to her and watched her eyes widen, grabbing it by the hair.

"Yes!"

Sabrina tapped Hallie's shoulder. "What do we say?"

Hallie looked up at me with a bright smile and said, "Thank you!"

I laughed and nodded, standing back up to see Rossi circle around into the kitchen.

"You're gonna want to see this." He said, a small frown on his face.

I watched as Sabrina anxiously followed Rossi out of the kitchen, picking up Hallie in her arms. She didn't seem to have an issue carrying the small girl before, but now it seemed like her daughter was suddenly too heavy for her.

I watched her carefully as Rossi used a glove to pick up a large rock that sat in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by shards of glass, a rubber band wrapped around the stone with a white page stuck to it.

"It doesn't look like whoever did this came into the house after breaking the windows. It was supposed to scare you."

"Well, they definitely succeeded in doing so, as well as scaring my goddamn bank account," she said, breathless. "Excuse me for a second." She said, and carefully walked towards the hallway, placing Hallie back down away from the glass. Once she was out of sight, I heard her feet thud against the hardwood, running towards the end of the hall. I quickly but quietly followed to see Hallie sitting on the floor in the hallway with her doll, and Sabrina pumping an inhaler into her mouth. She sat on-what I can only assume- her bed, and breathed in heavily, her eyes visibly watering as she took in another spritz of the inhaler.

Hallie caught sight of me and smiled a little, her short legs pushing off of the floor to stand up and meet me at the beginning of the hallway.

"That's mommy's medicine," she whispered. "We don't look." She grabbed my hand and led me into another bedroom, and I couldn't keep the shock from showing on my face.

She led me to the corner of the room where a dresser was placed against the wall, under a blinded window. She pointed towards the top drawer and looked at me expectantly. I reached out and opened the drawer, seeing a bundle of tiny socks rolled up into pairs.

I looked back down at her and she raised her tiny eyebrows at me.

"Socks." She said, and pointed back towards the drawer. I laughed softly and grabbed one of the pink rolled up pairs and held it out to her. "No." She shook her head and I laughed again.

"Do you want a different color?" I asked in amusement. She nodded and held her hand out for the next pair.

"Hmm.. How about these?" I picked out a green pair this time and placed it in her hand. She smiled and nodded, climbing on to her bed.

"Help, please," She said, her small smile bashful as she held the socks back out to me.

"Sure thing," I unrolled the socks and gently put them on her cold feet. "Better?"

She nodded and hopped off the bed, her blonde hair bouncing behind her.

I chuckled as I closed the dresser drawer and turned back towards the door to make sure she didn't step in any of the glass, but was met with Sabrina's green eyes. Her white t-shirt was wrinkled from being huddled in the cabinet and her fingers tugged down at her tiny shorts.

"Sorry, she can be really demanding." She said, awkwardly rubbing her arm.

I smiled and shook my head, walking back out into the hallway. "It's not a problem at all. Kids are smart- they know what they want, and ask for it."

I turned to face her as she leaned her head against the hallway wall, the heel of her hands rubbing into her eyes. "I'm really sorry for calling you. I know I should have just dialed 911, but I had your number, and it was a direct line, so I figured why not..." she opened her eyes back up and bit the inside of her cheek.

"Don't apologize. You can always call," I said, a reassuring small smile on my face.

As much as I tried to ignore it, Sabrina was breathtaking. When I saw her in our office for the first time, she looked disheveled and sleep deprived, but somehow as the day went on and the more I thought about it, she still seemed to be the prettiest girl I'd ever seen.

I hadn't had the best of luck with women; seeing as I didn't have a normal high school experience-being twelve and all- and in college, there were much more interesting things to me than girls. But looking at Sabrina, it made me wish I would've had more experience. It even almost made me wish Derek were here to ask him for his advice. Almost.

Amongst my thoughts, I hadn't realized I'd been staring at her the entire time, and quickly cleared my throat.

"Uh, yeah. So, we'll get forensics over here to check for any fingerprints," I cleared my throat again. "Do you have time to come down to the station and give a statement?"

She nodded and ran a hand through her hair as she walked back to her bedroom. "Let me get some clothes and something warm for Hallie, and I'll be out in a minute." She ushered Hallie into the bedroom with her, and closed the door softly behind her.

I exhaled slowly and rolled my eyes at myself as I walked back into the living room, seeing Hotch standing over the shards of glass.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked past him and saw the others filing into the house.

"What's going on?" I asked, and walked towards them while they read the note that was rubber-banded on the stone.

Hotch looked up at me and handed me the rock that was encased in the large evidence baggie, allowing me to read the page.

January 1

they'll never have a happy new year again, just like you won't.

I swallowed hard as I looked back to the hallway where Sabrina was standing. She had changed into jeans and a long sleeve, and her auburn hair was tied up into a high ponytail that left the rest dangling past her shoulders. Standing beside her, Hallie was bundled in a light pink puffer jacket and a white beanie that covered her blonde hair.

"What?" She asked, her eyes scanning the room. She seemed a bit embarrassed by the amount of people in her home, and I wanted to tell her it was okay, but I didn't.

Hotch walked over to her and held out his hand to introduce himself. He quickly told her about the note and that we would be taking her to the station to talk to her. Her face became pale as she agreed and picked up her daughter to take her to the car waiting outside.

As she passed me, Hallie smiled at me. "Spenter?" she asked and I felt my heart melt at her deep blue eyes and mispronunciation of my name.

"Yes?"

"Are you coming?"

Sabrina turned around to look at me, her face no longer pale, replaced by bright pink. Before she could say anything, I smiled and nodded at her daughter and opened the door for them.

"Yes, I am." I smiled at her while she giggled in amusement.

As Sabrina buckled Hallie into the car seat, I held the door open, my mind wandering back to the phone call Sabrina made to me, and I asked her, "Did a cup break while you were in the closet?"

She turned to look at me, her eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

I cleared my throat. "When you called, Hallie said 'the cup is broken again. I don't have socks.' What cup was broken?"

She laughed and sat down in the seat, putting her seatbelt on.

"It's a long story."

I nodded and scratched the back of my neck awkwardly. Before closing the door and hopping into the passenger seat, I said, "I hope I get to hear it sometime."

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AUTHORS NOTE.

OMG. The amount of comments & support i've been getting, i HAD to do a back to back update!

I would have made it all one chapter, but I don't like switching back and forth between the POVs more than once, so I split it up.

Also, just so we are on the same page, I have a WHOLE PLAN for this book and i'm so freakin excited to share it with you guys! I wish I could just put all my thoughts onto the screen so you could perfectly see my vision, but unfortunately, I cant :( so you're stuck with me trying to build the bridge of the beginning to the next book, LOL.

QUESTION: do you get confused by the italics when they're on the phone and/or reading the letters/texting? or is it pretty self explanatory? let me know!

Please vote/comment, it totally encourages me to keep going. I love all of you!!

PS- I've been in a really writing mood, so I might just update multiple times.... :)

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