the girl who i love(d)

time

|chapter tws: mention of suicide and small mention of stomach pains (emetophobia safe!) |

~~

8 hours. That's how long they now have.

Another hour had passed, and Gideon and Reid found nothing of use at Natalie's house. Natalie was out, caring for her friend, whose mother had passed away three days ago. She only planned on taking a singular day off of work, but after speculation appeared that the death was a suicide, she took more time to be there for everyone affected. Once they heard this news, they relayed it back to the team and returned to the station for the next moves. 

Afterwards, the team received worse news when they discovered that the house Morgan and Elle investigated was in perfect shape. The streets were clear, everything was normal, and worst of all -- Laci Chamberlain had been just resting at her house, totally accounted for and completely unharmed. This meant that their only leads were false, and all they had done was waste time. Not only that, but they were out of luck. 

The only thing that would help them at this point was waiting for the body to drop.

Some wouldn't give up. Although they only had a few hours left, Penelope ran thousands of searches and kept herself occupied trying to find something that they'd missed. She took out pieces of information to limit the victim list, tried even making her own profile. JJ joined her, tossing things back-and-forth over the phone trying to figure something out. There was a period of time where Elle tried helping as well, but as for everyone else, they all eventually fell into a state of pure hopelessness as they just waited for someone to announce this new victim.

~~

The next day, around 11 pm, they still hadn't gotten anything. No reports of a body, and any and all potential victims were still safe and accounted for, living their lives as normal. This screwed with the profile entirely.

Spencer stood by a board, pointing to different images and explaining his ideas to his team in their private room. They'd all only gotten a few hours of sleep, but it was just enough to keep their minds open for the time being.

"There must be something different about this victim. Um, the- the way that we profiled it originally, he was trying to get women that were younger and in schools so that it was easier to take them over. That contributed to the victimology, but what if he, like other unsubs, started looking at this case? If he noticed that we were here, that would stress him out, he'd- he would begin panicking and just try to find anyone to kill so that, at least, he could go down in history."

The team all nodded throughout his explanation, starting to actually agree with this idea despite how far-fetched some may have thought it was.

"So, you think we're looking at the victims wrong? Depending on the victimology?" Elle asked him, more engaged than anyone in the room.

"Exactly. What if instead of searching for the girl, we started searching for him? Or, at the least, we could switch our focus onto finding a reason why she's lived for so long." 

Morgan chimed in, "She could just be using her words. Some people have that kind of charm, especially if they were taught well growing up."

"This is good. Let's have some of us look at the girl, how she's surviving. Reid, JJ, Elle, you work on that. The rest of us, let's think about the unsub."

Now, they had something. They split up, brainstorming and generating so many possibilities that it was like fresh brains had just been added onto the case. Progress was forming in mere moments. But they still had to wonder how the progress was going on the other end of things.

~~

She felt a chain loosen around her hand as the one thing holding her up was released. She almost fell to the floor but was instantly caught by something. Turning her head, she saw the man there, but it wasn't just the man who did this to her. Now, when she looked at this unmasked face, she saw a man. One who must've had a bad past to lead him to do things like this. One who deserved better than whatever he got, one who she was sure had a chance to grow into someone better than who he was now.

It was weird how she felt emotions towards a man so heartless. But in reality, she only felt this way because she had no idea that he was actually heartless anymore. He was letting her go, freeing her. Doesn't this mean he has a heart?

When he gently placed her on the ground and held his arm around her waist to keep her standing up, she didn't hesitate to place her own hand on his shoulder as he guided her to the bed. She leaned forward almost instantly, holding her stomach tightly. He put his hand on her neck and moved his thumb to make her look up at him. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. Maybe he was truly changing.

Still, she hadn't given up on escaping.

Her eyes met his and despite the intense pain her stomach was feeling or the sweat dripping down her forehead, she refused to answer his question. Instead, she answered with a single word - "name." He tilted his head at her, "Your name."

"Adam."

She nodded. "Adam. I'm-" She began before he cut her off.

"I know who you are."

"Yeah? I recognize you. Did we meet?"

The conversation stayed calm, gentle, her hand slowly moving away from her stomach and her body returning to a normal position than one reflecting her pain.

"You don't remember me? None of you remember who I am. You never pay attention," he grew angry in a matter of seconds.

She panicked, "No. No, I pay attention. Sometimes I can't because I get too busy. But I remember you. You're from the gym." 

Her tone suggested that she really remembered his face, and she did try, but no answers came to her mind so she just blurted out something, hoping it would be correct.

Luckily for her, it was. "Yeah. I helped there, I helped in Fairfax, I helped everyone, but they never remember me."

"You don't have to worry about what I remember, Adam. I'm different than them. Than everyone else. Okay?" She asked softly, her voice slightly breaking.

"Mhm," was all he could say, feeling overwhelmed at the many new emotions he felt. He was feeling attached to her, believing each word she said, impatiently waiting for another word to come out of her mouth so that he could favor it too. 

She was in control now.

But it would be only a matter of time before that control was taken from her once again.