be the one ⇢ s. reid

xx.

Melanie had decided to sit out on the investigation but would only chime in when necessary - which wasn't a whole of doing. She tried her best to not think about Spencer being dead by the time the agents found him or Penelope. Sam had stayed by his friend's side, even including the short nap she took on the couch in Penelope's couch. 

By the time she had woken up, the team were still nowhere on where the two FBI agents were except that Mary and Ben were a part of a case the BAU had worked on over a decade ago. The original leader of the cult and his leaders used to be based off in Colorado. The ranch they lived on blew up and witness protection had them relocated to areas in Virginia and Maryland. 

"This is good. We have a starting point." Emily said, running her fingers through her jet black hair. It had been a long night for the agents but when it comes to the people they loved, they would stop at nothing - and this included ignoring sleep. 

"Don't you know people in witness protection, Matt? Or well, people that work for it." Melanie asked. 

Matt nodded. "I do. I'm going to get in touch with them to see if it'll narrow our searches easily. From there we ca-" 

"Oh my god." Melanie gasped. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped slightly when she saw who had walked into the bullpen. She instantly ran up to her and hugged her tightly. "Are you hurt?!" 

Penelope, however, did not respond. She stayed in place and started to mutter something that Melanie couldn't quite hear. She pulled away from her friend and placed her hands on her shoulders. "What was that?" 

"It's a warehouse that's in Hillcrest, 18 minutes." The blonde repeated. "I can take you there. You got to hurry. They hurt Reid. He's been bleeding. They're in trucks with Theo. I heard a gunshot. It's a warehouse."

Melanie looked back at the agents, who all looked at one another. With no time to waste, they all headed out of the office. The journalist led a scared Penelope over to her desk and had her sit down on the chair.

"P, you're okay. You're safe." She reassured. "No one's going to hurt you here."

The sound of Melanie's voice had Penelope snap back into reality. She looked up at her and her eyes started to water.

"Oh, Mel I am so sorry." She whimpered.

Melanie's jaw clenched as she bit down on her tongue. Seeing Melanie's reaction, Penelope placed her hands over her mouth and gasped softly. "Oh no, Mel that's not what I meant! I just...There was a lot happening. Spencer...he saved my life."

Melanie nodded slowly. Before she could respond, her phone started to ring. She checked the caller ID and saw that it was Emily.

"You're on speaker." Melanie stated.

Emily began to explain that there was no one at the location Penelope gave them. It was like the warehouse had been completely emptied out except for Theo's body. Truth be told, Melanie was hoping that Theo would've been their 300th victim and knowing that his hyoid wasn't taking was for sure making her theory of Spencer being the final victim to be true.

"Reid said it all happens at 10:23." Penelope spoke.

"But it's past that. So what did he mean?" Sam questioned.

"Could be a clue here. They got sloppy since they left in a hurry." David said.

"Okay, well, you can't be that far behind them." Melanie sighed softly.

"I know, but there's easy access to 3 major highways, and we don't know which way they went." Emily replied.

As they were talking, Penelope had already opened up the laptop that Sam had provided for her and she began typing away.