The Ghost of Princeton ||Spencer Reid||

fifteen minutes

SPENCER

They were gone. They had been gone for the better part of fifteen minutes, which meant they were too far to be stopped by the team. Not when the team had only just pulled into the carpark, the sound of tires screeching to a halt outside had alerted me to that fact.

My anger was directed at so many people. First was Cressida, for going into this alone when she didn't have to. I understood why, because she was likely right about the theory that if she had stormed this place with the team that Cooper would have killed me. But understanding why didn't have to make me like the decision anymore than I did: which was not at all.

Second was the team. They had allowed her to run into this without backup, had taken their eyes off of her for far too fucking long and allowed her to run the risk of going in alone. They should have known better.

Third was the obvious choice; Harrison Cooper. He didn't have to do any of this. He didn't have to fucking take me or play whatever game he wanted to play with Cressida, but he was doing it anyway. We deserved our peace. Cress deserved her peace after everything she had been through with them. But he couldn't leave her alone, and that made me so exceptionally angry that I wasn't sure I would be able to focus after getting free of this stupid fucking bathroom.

"Spence!"

"JJ!" I shouted back and the door opened with such force it was a wonder it stayed on its hinges. "They're gone. Cooper took her and she went willingly in exchange for keeping me alive," I explained as JJ ran over to me and unlocked the generic cuffs on my wrists, finally freeing me of the fucking towel rack.

"How long ago was that?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"No second count on that?" She asked, maybe trying to lighten the mood through a joke but she didn't understand. None of them could. "Are you okay?" She asked as I stood up, rubbing my wrists and heading straight out of the bathroom.

"I'm fine. He didn't hurt me, I'm not his target and just taking me caused Cress enough pain." Maybe I should have been focused on my breathing, but I couldn't. Fifteen minutes they had been gone for, they could be anywhere by now.

"Do you know where they're heading?" Rossi asked as I realised the rest of the team were in the lounge room I had just walked into. They were all in their vests, each with their guns either in hand or in the process of holstering them again.

"Princeton," I answered. That anger, it was bubbling to the surface. How could they let her out of their sight? How could they do this to us?

"Okay, then we get ready to drive immediately. We need to catch up, they only have a small head start on us." JJ said, and I shook my head.

"They shouldn't have a head start..." I whispered, a hand in my hair as my heart felt like it was beating hard enough to shatter my ribcage from this inside out.

"Spence, we-"

"You're the ones who let her out of your sight." I cut Emily off, and while a tiny part of me felt guilty for lashing out at someone who was clearly trying to help me, the rest of me didn't. "You took your eyes off of her, how long was it before you realised she was gone? Five minutes? Ten?"

"Look, we get it. You've been together for a while now, you're going to be protective. But she slipped away without us noticing, because she thought all of us coming here would lead to you being shot. It wasn't the best decision, but it's given us some extra time to figure out a better plan." Tara said. But it was all a lie. Because they didn't get it. They didn't understand. How could they?

"You don't get it," I said, shaking my head as the need to punch through a wall overtook my body. Or punch through Cooper.

"What don't we get? What are we missing?" Alvez asked, and I realised I was about to say it out loud. I would have to just so they could understand the severity of what they had done.

"Cress is..." fuck. Why was this so goddamn hard? My chest was constricting as I tried to get the words out, my lungs tightening along with my throat.

"Shit..." Simmons whispered. Obviously he'd figured out what I couldn't say, but the others still needed me to say it for them.

"Cress is pregnant." I finally managed to get the words out, and the weight of the silence in the room brought me close to collapsing into a heap. But now that I'd said those words, my tongue lightened and I could keep speaking. I could keep lashing out at the people who just wanted to help. "Cress is pregnant, and you all let her walk out without you knowing. You all let her come here, by herself, to trade herself for me and none of you did a fucking thing to stop her!"

"Spence, you need to-"

"You better not tell me to calm down." I cut JJ off, and once again there was only a small piece of me that felt bad for doing it. "Cooper knew about Cress and I, and if he knew about us then there is every chance he knows about the baby. And even if he doesn't, he knows Cress and will know something is different. He'll figure it out, and who knows what he's going to do about it."

"What would that change for him?" Simmons asked, and I had to take a breath to remind myself that not everyone on the team was here when this all happened. Not everyone knows every detail like I did.

"Cress figured out how best to play with the Horsemen when we took them down." Emily spoke instead of me, probably sensing how unlikely it was that I would string together a coherent sentence. "For Cooper, she realised that he had become infatuated with her. She used Spencer as a way to throw him off back then, and it worked. If he knows that Cressida is pregnant, and that it's not his child but Spencer's..." everyone seemed to realise the gravity of the situation then.

"Did he mention it to you?" Tara asked, and I shook my head.

"He didn't talk to me much, or at all really. He only came in to give me food and water and let me move for a few minutes a day. Not a single word left his mouth in my presence." It was unsurprising, given the hatred he likely has for me. What was surprising was the fact that I didn't have any broken bones or wounds from my time here, but I guess that could be something to work out later.

"So we work under the assumption that he knows, it will put the pressure on us to find them faster. Is there any other information that could be of help?" Emily asked, I took a slow breath.

"Cress remembers being held in Princeton for a few months before being moved to the compound. She thinks it was an abandoned bank, one with a vault because that's what she was held in." I said, and everyone broke away to begin plans to get to Princeton. It was after that when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see Rossi with a look of determination on his face.

"We're going to find her, kid. We're going to find her and everything is going to be fine."

I hoped he was right.