Façade//Spencer Reid

40. Out of time

The day that Y/N was taken, Hotch told the team that they had one month to find Y/N's stalker before the case would be classified as a 'cold case', and would no longer be considered top priority.

Pressure had definitely set in and everyone was determined. But no BAU member was more determined than Spencer. Whenever he wasn't with Carter in his apartment, he was at the BAU with the team. He did bring Carter with him, temporarily home-schooling him until Y/N was found and the stalker was identified and arrested.

Will would bring Henry around every morning and every afternoon, considering Henry went to school every day.

———

Spencer walked into Penelope's lair, watching as she and Derek sifted through a huge list of names.

"How far we through the list?" Spencer asked, trying to keep himself awake using the coffee in his hand.

"We've reached the 'VIP' section of the list. Every single person on this part of the list is like Y/N used to be - trusted by Marco." Penelope replied.

"That's still at least 300-400 names. We're running out of time, Garcia. We're close to our deadline. If we don't find this person - and in turn Y/N - soon, we might never find her." Spencer warned.

"We know that, Spencer. We're working as hard as we can." Penelope smiled weakly, trying to reassure the worried doctor.

"Are you okay, kid?" Derek furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the dark circles under Spencer's eyes. He was yawning every 5-10 minutes and he kept rubbing his eyes, as if that would keep him awake.

"I'm fine. I just want Y/N back." Spencer nodded, unsuccessfully convincing Derek and Garcia.

"O- Okay." Derek watched as Spencer hastily left the room, concerned.

"He's not okay." Penelope exhaled.

"No. He's not." Derek shook his head.

———

Only JJ and Penelope knew about Spencer and Y/N. They had kept their mouths shut, even when the two became the topic of discussion within Derek and Emily's conversations.

"Has he taken a break?" Emily tilted her head as she watched Spencer race through the (significantly) large pile of papers that held over 50 names on each.

"He's...uh, been sitting there going through the pile for about...1 hour and 45 minutes." Derek admitted.

"I mean, we're all determined to get Y/N back, but this? This is extreme, even for Spencer. Surely there's something going on between them. That would be the only explanation as to why he's barely sleeping." Emily insisted.

"Any luck?" JJ asked as she walked up to Derek and Emily.

"Not on our end, but I'm sure Reid will come up with something...eventually." Derek shook his head.

JJ couldn't help but feel incredibly heartbroken for Spencer.

"What's that look in your eyes- wait! You know something we don't." Emily realised.

JJ may not have given them verbal confirmation, but she had confirmed their suspicions through her eyes.

"If he asks how we know, we'll leave you out of it. We promise." Derek smiled.

"Uh, guys. You need to see this." Penelope whispered as she walked up to Derek, Emily and JJ, who had stopped focusing on Spencer.

They walked to Penelope's lair and saw the BAU bullpen security footage.

"What's this?" Derek asked.

"I decided to go back through the security footage to see if I could run the stalker's figure through my identification software - so far no hits. But, while I was looking, I accidently stumbled on the footage for the bullpen over the past few weeks." Penelope pressed play.

"Wh- What are we looking at here?" Emily asked.

"According to the timestamps, the footage shows that for the past few weeks, our - very determined - boy wonder has been arriving to the bullpen with Carter at 5:30 AM every day and not leaving the office until at least...11:45 PM." Penelope explained.

"That...that's not healthy." JJ furrowed her eyebrows.

"It unfortunately gets worse. In the 18 hours and 15 minutes that he spends at the office, he gets up from his desk three times for 15 minutes. Once at 10 AM, once at 5 PM, and once at 10 PM. Each time he returns with a fresh cup of coffee and some food. I also hope that he goes to the bathroom in that 15 minute time period." Penelope shook her head.

"We need to tell Hotch. This isn't healthy for him...and not for Carter either." Derek insisted.

"Who has the honors?" Emily sighed.

Derek raised his hand, everyone nodding. They headed to the bullpen, noticing Hotch exiting his office. Rossi had clearly been informed of some news, which is why he kept his gaze away from the team.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked as Hotch exhaled.

"Our month is up. Strauss is no longer considering Y/N's kidnapping a top priority case. We've been instructed to leave the investigation alone until she comes up with a viable lead. Until then, we're back to working our normal cases." Hotch knew that his explanation wouldn't go down well with the team.

"What?! It can't be up!" Spencer checked his calendar. Sure enough, it had been a month since Y/N was taken.

"Son of a bitch!" Spencer stood up and angrily slammed his fists down onto his desk, scaring the team. He forcefully pushed his personal property off his desk, - trying to avoid angering Strauss and the Bureau by destroying Bureau property - clearly fuming and full of rage. Without much thought, he left the bullpen, not bothering to clean up the mess of books and paper that had now landed on the floor.

Everyone looked at each other in shock. Spencer had never shown this much anger and rage before. Sure, there was the time he got pissed off during his prank war against Derek, but this was different. This was a man desperately doing everything in his power to find and bring the love of his life - and the mother of his favourite little boy - back home, and being time-restricted, it was destroying him.