" transferring her to a mental block at the hospital here. the doctors are going to work with her until she's physically in better shape, and then work on her mentally." rossi reported, coming back from a discussion with a doctor.

spencer's forehead creased as he furrowed his eyebrows. "she didn't commit those murders, rossi. look at her. she's terrified."

rossi nodded in agreement. "but we can't rule that possibility out. she's one of our biggest leads, we may finally have a break in the x-guy case." he paused. "we don't even know if her information will be reliable, because of her—"

"—mental state. i know." reid sighed, exasperated. "when are we questioning her?"

"when she's recovered. we can't force information out of her if she's going to recover." rossi massaged his temples, then paused to look at spencer's arms. "you okay?"

spencer looked down at his bandaged arms. the glass he pushed to the side cut him apparently, but he didn't notice until a doctor offered to help him. "yeah. b-but—rossi."

"yeah?"

"the look in her eyes. it was terrifying, for me, even. i-i mean, having a mother with schizophrenia, you would think i would get used to people acting like that. but gracen, that girl, she looked like she was bottling so much inside, with no way to escape from herself. it only takes one negative thought to plague the mind, and when it starts it won't stop until it fully devours you." spencer paused, looking up at rossi. "we don't know how much time we have left until she looses it."

"we will do what we can." rossi nodded. "because if we lose her, we lose our chance at saving many more people."

it sounds wrong, to use the girl for the investigation, but it's necessary. spencer thought. they might not have a lot of time left before he took his next victim—or worse—took back gracen jones.

but the BAU wasn't going to let that happen.

—

"miss jones, how are you feeling today?"

gracen looked past the psychiatrist, ignoring the question as the answer was always the same. after the freak out, she hadn't slept in days. closing her eyes brought her back to the haunting memories.

the bodies.

the blood.

the screams.

"gracen, can you make eye contact with me?" he tried again. this time, gracen's attention shifted to the doctor.

"people are going to come in and ask you a few questions. you might recognize them, you might not. please answer the questions truthfully and then you can get some rest. does that sound good?"

gracen slowly nodded. she wasn't going to sleep anyways.

the psychiatrist left the room, letting two people inside. gracen recognized their faces immediately. regardless of her mental state, she had photographic memory. which was why she could see certain things and remember them forever.

it was the two fbi agents that came the day she went psycho. one of them, she especially noticed, as he walked inside the room thanking the doctor, was the man that comforted her that day, whispering those comforting words in her ear. goosebumps appeared on her skin when she thought about it. it felt so nice. to be hugged.

but it was false hope. lies, she thought. no one could save her.

she examined him. he had medium length hair with unruly brown locks that curled in every direction, making him look like a crazy scientist. his eyes were very large, adding more to his crazed look. she liked it. she liked his face. she liked that he looked just a little crazy.

spencer reid examined the whole room, noting that nothing big must've happened, before landing his eyes on the girl who sat upright leaning against the headboard of the hospital bed.

he examined her. the girl had an undeniably attractive face—but she looked terrible. her blonde hair fell mid-way down her chest, indicating it hadn't been cut for maybe 6 months. her large dark brown eyes were engulfed by bloodshot veins and purple eye bags. spencer figured she hadn't slept in days. she looked ill.

but sadly, she was.

there was another thing he was thinking about, other than how she looked—he had wish the BAU allowed more time for gracen jones to recover, because that would insure a more reliable questioning that would get real answers, rather than ones that could've been screwed up due to the shock. but truthfully, the police had discovered another body with the same M.O. as the other victims just yesterday, the x-mark slashed in the victim's throat.

this proved that it wasn't going to end with gracen's escape and that he would be killing again—and if anything—more, due to the stressor of losing the girl he had held captive for ten years. therefore, they had to get answers, not having much time before he would strike again.

"hi gracen." rossi greeted. "is it alright if we sit?"

she nodded, and rossi pulled two chairs next to the bed.

spencer slowly walked over, keeping his eyes on her the whole time.

"gracen, do you remember me?" spencer asked softly, taking the seat next to rossi.

the girl nodded, a ghost of a smile appearing on her lips that her eyes didn't harmonize with.

"so it's okay if i ask you a few questions, right?" the doctor asked calmly.

she nodded.

"okay. let's start with this. what's your favorite restaurant gracen?" he started.

her eyebrows furrowed. that's when spencer realized that he asked the wrong question. she hadn't been outside for ten years, how is she supposed to remember?! god— spencer thought, mentally slapping himself. "—o-okay, how 'bout—"

"greasers." gracen said weakly, reminiscing her parents taking her there for most of her childhood, the fairy lights, the smell of rosemary and basil that she loved, it was all in that restaurant. she remembered all the memories that place left her with. it made her a little happy and sad thinking about it.

spencer quickly wrote the restaurant down, looking at rossi.

"one of my favorites too, gracen." rossi said. spencer inertly raised his eyebrow. rossi was lying, probably just to make her more comfortable, of course, but spencer silently disapproved.

gracen looked at the old man, another ghost of a smile appearing on her face.

spencer and the girl jumped as rossi's phone rang out. the man picked it out of his pocket and held the device up to his ear. hearing whatever the other person was saying on the other line, rossi's face morphed into concern and he stood up, quickly hanging up.

"you're staying here to talk to her." rossi said quickly.

"what—" spencer started.

rossi was already at the doorway. "i will text you."

spencer nodded, understanding that something must've just happened. a small ping rang in his pocket, and he took out his phone, eyes widening.