gracen jones was utterly exhausted. she had the nightmares for the entire week, even when she took naps she went back to that cellar. they were finally to take a toll on her—sometimes she couldn't differentiate her getting used to the nightmares or the nightmares driving her more insane.

but gracen was finally getting some of her memories back through the dreams.

too bad she had no one to tell the new information to.

after the little incident, spencer reid stopped visiting her. she understood, if she was in his position she would've left and never came back. but that didn't stop gracen from feeling hurt whenever she thought about it. she wondered what would've happened if someone didn't knock on the door that night.

gracen shivered, pulling her blankets over her cold body. her entire body was aching and sore, because the doctors took her to a physical therapy session the day before. for ten years she was tied up in that chair, ben only letting her out of it to use the restroom or to "take walks" with him. those walks were always just around the cellar, around and around.

her muscles were extremely weak and she was basically just made up of bone. the doctors needed to get her in the correct muscle composition percentage and the correct weight range for her age, and she needed help with that.

in the cellar, ben bought her food and they ate together, she remembered. but gracen was never in the mood to eat. she was too scared, too nauseous at the thought of her parents' bodies.

gracen looked out the window. she wanted to go outside and bask in the sunlight. her nurse took her outside everyday, eventually having to force her to go back to her room before she got "sunburnt."

but gracen loved the sun. and outside. the world was a beautiful yet such a messed up place. gracen wished she could only see the beautiful, but that would be impossible for her. those messed up things were already inside her brain, while the sun only shone on the outside.

"miss jones, you have a visitor."

gracen's head whipped around, the nurse's voice interrupting her thoughts. a smile crept onto her face thinking about who it could be.

as much as she disliked spencer now—and she was sure the feeling was mutual—gracen was still attached to the guy. she just wanted someone to talk to her like he did, to smile at her like he did.

gracen, deep down, just wanted a friend.

which is why gracen realized days ago that she was wrong about having feelings for spencer. she only thought of him as a friend, and it hurt her when she noticed him only trying to get information out of her for the investigation. gracen just needed someone to talk to.

her eyebrows furrowed. but even then, was being friends with your client that frowned upon? he confused her.

but her eyebrows furrowed even deeper when she saw some random man walk through her room door. gracen swallowed her disappointment, letting her tensed up muscles relax.

"derek morgan. i'm with the fbi." the dark-skinned man held up his badge to her, and she nodded only slightly. "how are you?"

"okay." gracen jones croaked out in her raw voice.

"okay enough to leave the hospital for a little?" he asked. gracen nodded.

"where am i going?"

"to quantico. we're setting up an interview for you on the case. if you're not ready miss jones, i can stop by in a week or so." agent morgan said, but then paused. "but the kills are getting more—"

"yes, i'm fine with that." gracen said quickly before the man could go into detail.

he smiled. "alright. i'll be in the waiting room and you can have your nurse walk you out, that alright miss jones?"

gracen nodded, and the man exiting the room. she let out a long sigh. taking her to the bau meant she was going to see spencer reid. it was going to be awkward.

she let out a groan as she used momentum to push herself off the bed, her legs wobbling and sore from the exercise. when gracen made it to the bathroom, she realized how terrible she looked. not like she cared to look good for anyone, but gracen found herself staring at a hobo in the mirror, herself.

she had changed a lot, she realized. it had been ten years since gracen saw herself in the mirror. when she was sixteen, gracen had large bright eyes that were light enough to be mistaken as hazel instead of brown. now her eyes were dark, so dark that they were almost black.

shaking her head, she doused her face in water, removing her eye-boogers and brushing her teeth. after brushing her hair as well, she went back to her room where a shirt and pants laid on the bed. quickly putting them on and checking herself one more time in the mirror, gracen jones left her hospital room and bed.

—

when spencer reid saw derek morgan walk inside the bullpen with a blonde girl next to him, spencer immediately turned around and went to the back of the room for "coffee." he hadn't prepared himself for any social interaction with her, and he didn't want to socially interact with her, fearing that it'd be awkward as hell.

"we're meeting in the interrogation room in 5, reid." hotch said, swiftly walking past him.

reid turned around, eyebrows furrowed. "interrogation room? we aren't doing the interview in an office?"

"no."

"why? it's going to trigger her anxiety going in there—it's-its like a cellar, hotch. plus, you guys make it under 30 degrees in there—"

"miss jones doesn't receive any special treatment under any circumstances. reid, you don't realize that she could possibly be an accomplice to the x-killer, right?"

spencer's eyes widened. "what? no way! there's no statistics on this, but there's rarely any cases of hostages becoming accomplices to their kidnappers, that just doesn't happen—"

"we don't know, reid, but she could be making up or lying about some information, and we need to find out the truth."

"this is ridiculous! if she goes psycho in there, don't say i didn't warn you guys." spencer threw his hands up in frustration and stormed out of room, leaving the rest of the team confused.

"what—" jj started but hotch shook his head, pinching his nose bridge.

—

"prentiss and jj are going on for the interview." hotch informed rossi, morgan, and reid. "i think she'll be more comfortable talking to the ladies."

"prentiss is back?" spencer asked, watching the black-haired woman enter the interrogation room.

"she's visiting for the case."

"i see." spencer said, watching through the one-sides window. gracen jones sat there, facing the window, unaware she was being watched by a whole team of agents. her right leg bounced in and down—a nervous tick—spencer figured, and she kept wringing her wrists.

the girl looked different today, and that's when spencer realized he hadn't seen her in anything except the clothes the hospital provided. not to mention she looked a little bit healthier—less green in the face and color on her cheeks.

"miss gracen jones?" prentiss started, as her and jj stepped in.

gracen's head snapped up and she nodded anxiously. the girls leg started bouncing up and down faster, and her eyes darted around the room nervously.

spencer reached over to the thermostat where the number laid at 25 degrees. it was freezing in there. he was going to turn it up, but rossi's voice stopped him when spencer's hand reached the box. "don't touch the thermostat, reid."

spencer dropped his hand obediently. "making someone freeze is a form of torture, you guys know that right?"

"we need to have her on edge, that's the point." hotch said, keeping his eyes on the three ladies in the room.

"she's already on edge." spencer murmured.

hotch ignored his comment, listening in on the conversation.

"gracen, we need to take you back to your life before you were kidnapped. can you tell be about anyone who was overly obsessive or anyone you saw often?" jj asked once they sat down.

gracen shook her head. "no one i can think of."

"he most likely didn't put himself in gracen's life, and if he did it was a small act, something she wouldn't remember." rossi said. "it acted as an element of surprise."

"we're going to show you some pictures, and you're going to point to which ones you recognize or knew, okay?" prentiss rearranged pictures of the x-killer's victims in their everyday lives, not the scene ones.

after scanning the pictures in front of her, and put her finger on tasha jones, gracen's mother, and david jones, gracen's father. "my mom and dad." she said.

"okay." prentiss took away those pictures, putting them in a file.

"a-analeise." she murmured, point to analeise finkler's photo, tears pricking in her eyes. "my best friend."

"tommy. my boyfriend."

"kara. my math tutor."

"i-i recognize that person." gracen pointed to the photo of thomas haulkin, a middle aged

man.

"how do you know this man, gracen?"

"he was the janitor at my high school. there were rumors going around that he was a creep."

"did thomas haulkin ever speak to you, gracen?" jj asked.

gracen shook her head. "but i saw him a lot."

"haulkin does have a criminal background." morgan said, shuffling through a file. "garcia pulled it up. convicted of child molestation."

"do you think this dude was targeting gracen and her kidnapper saw it?" rossi asked the team.

"he could've seen the janitor following gracen around the times that he followed her around." reid furrowed his eyebrows. "that would mean the kidnapper had a high chance of going to her high school."

morgan immediately grabbed his phone from his pocket, dialing a number that was on speed dial. "hey babygirl, can you pull up boys with the name of "ben" at lewis and clark high school? she was a sophomore when she got taken, so search for all four classes when she got taken."

after garcia found them, they were sent to morgan's phone and he walked inside the interrogation room. there were twenty-four "ben's." no one was surprised, because it was a generally generic name.

"miss jones, hello." morgan said, greeting the girl he saw earlier. "i'm going to show you some photos, and i know you haven't gotten your memory back yet, but maybe seeing them will recover something, alright?"

he pulled up the photos on his phone, showing them to her one by one. gracen shook her head at most, except for two. it wasn't surprising when morgan saw that those two boys were in her class at the time.

"i-i've only seen them around. never spoken to them."

the names were ben schumacher and ben carlton.

—