for those next couple of days, more victims of the "x" killer showed up, slowing dispersing over the period of a week. his killings were starting to get less and less violent, as in, less deep cuts on the throat and less physical abuse on the body.

the killer was losing hope and motivation, most likely due to the loss of gracen jones.

"alright, we know that she was kidnapped on october 12, 1997. the very next morning, the bodies of her parents were found." agent hotchner stated, looking through the file.

"probably so that nothing would be said about her missing, so no one would look for her." derek morgan said.

"that means the killer could be lacking in confidence, he was afraid of gracen being found and taken away from him." spencer said, still massaging his temples. "she knew most of his victims. the killer might've been in love with her..."

it disgusted him. spencer has already dealt with many cases like these ones before—obsessive stalker kidnaps the love of his / hers life, stripping them away of their own life. but to do what? keep someone who will never love you back no matter what for years? he couldn't understand how one could even think that was normal behavior.

but then again, there's nothing relatively normal about serial killers.

"he murdered everyone in her life, so we can assume he's an obsessive psychopath." rossi muttered. "but she said she was in love with him, didn't she reid?"

reid bit his bottom lip and nodded. "but it doesn't make sense. she said she felt safe around the man in her dreams. gracen can't possibly feel safe around her killer unless she's developed stockholm syndrome."

"only 8% of hostage victims develop symptoms of stockholm syndrome. and gracen has expressed strong feelings of fear and hate for ben, the man she claims is her captivator—while she expressed feelings of empathy for the other guy." spencer shook his head. "but then who could the other guy possibly be?"

"i think the only way we can find that out is with her in the room. only she knows what this man looks like." hotch sighed. "this is our only lead on the case right now, we have to build on whatever we have."

"she's had a week to recover, so i think she's ready for a full interview on the case." jj said from her seat across the room. the rest of the team nodded.

"we're taking a new case tomorrow morning, so this case is going to have to go into our free time." hotch said, standing up. "you all may head home now and get some rest."

he exited the conference room and the team let out a tired sigh, sick and well, sick of the x-killer case. people filed out of the room until it was just spencer and morgan left.

reid was trying to relieve his pounding headache that started over again. he figured he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight because of it. not to mention, he was still silently sulking at the incident at the hospital yesterday.

"you alright kid?" morgan asked, after noticing the constant head popping and temple massages.

spencer blinked hard to clear the black dots, looking up at the dark-skinned man. "yeah. i've been getting headaches. maybe i have a cold." he shivered at the thoughts of nasty bacteria invading his immune system.

"you should skip the hospital visit and head home to rest, reid." morgan said. "think you need it."

spencer shook his head. "i haven't visited for a week."

the man cocked his head to the side, his nosy self wanting to hear the reason for it. "what happened?"

"i don't want to talk about it." spencer said, slowly packing his things after deciding he had enough energy to stand up. the fact was, it still embarrassed him. he mustered up all that courage just for life to just pull them apart. it probably meant that spencer kissing her just wasn't right.

"come on reid, it can't be that bad." morgan said. "what'd you do, kiss her or something?" he let out a laugh at his own joke.

reid stiffened and morgan noticed the obvious change in behavior.

"you're kidding." the muscle-ly man's jaw dropped. "reid."

"i didn't. and i said, i don't want to talk about it." spencer said, now annoyed than ever and blushing furiously.

"you tried to kiss her?" morgan teased. "let me guess, you went in for the swoop and she wasn't feeling it?"

"no. no—that's not what happened, morgan." spencer was getting a little angry now. his head pains were just feeding into the irritation. "stop making assumptions. it's none of your business, anyways."

"well, you gotta see her reid. it's for the investigation." morgan said, obviously not caring if he was actually getting information from her or not with these hospital trips.

"no, morgan. you don't understand. i wasn't getting any information out of her anyways—i don't know what the hell i was doing, but i stayed there for hours talking to her and would only come back with, what, the description of this random man in her dreams that we don't even know is real or not! i wasn't even trying to find the killer, i was just bonding with her the whole time! and now she thinks that she's fallen for me or something, just because i couldn't do my job correctly and couldn't keep things professional! i-i literally can't do anything right on this team, morgan—"

"—whoa reid, calm down for a second—" morgan started but he was cut off again by spencer's steam.

"—no! i will not calm down! everything is stressing me out, this job, my mom, that-that girl—i just—ugh!!!" he grabbed his head, the headaches only getting worse by the second, blinding him momentarily in five second intervals. he couldn't even make it morgan's face properly.

"kid, calm down—" reid felt morgan engulf him in a comforting hug. that's when spencer felt guilty for yelling at him. morgan was always a brother that spencer never had and sometimes spencer took that for granted. "if hotch and the rest of the team were here, they would agree with me when i say that you do a lot for this team. we call you annoying for spurting your facts and whatever—and it is annoying, trust me—but we wouldn't trade it for anything else."

morgan pulled back. "have a little more faith in yourself, alright brother?" he patted him hard on the back and spencer winced.

spencer dropped his head and let out a long sigh. he nodded, slowly fake-smiling as he lifted his head. his headache disappeared again. it seemed they only appeared when he was really stressed out.

"...my facts aren't annoying. you guys would die without them."

morgan chuckled, patting him on the back. "i told you we wouldn't trade it for anything else."

"i know that."

"and the girl—it's all up to you. if you like her, ain't nothing stopping you." he chuckled. "except, maybe the fact that you're kind of a nerd and—"

spencer shook his head, staying silent.

"also reid—" the chocolate man looked back at spencer, smirking.

"what?"

"play on, playa."

—