Past and Present

Chapter 16

It had been close to 45 minutes since Jo had left to go buy the team's lunch and Reid was beginning to worry. Shouldn't someone have gone with her? What was he thinking? He felt like if something were to have happened, it would've been his fault.

Anxious, Reid approached Hotch.

"Hotch?"

"Whats up Reid?"

"I don't want to alarm anyone but it's been nearly 45 minutes and Jo is still not back," Reid said, annoyed that no one else seemed to notice.

When the team realized that their newest member could have been potentially kidnapped, everyone freaked out. Morgan offered to go with Reid to the store to see if she was there, which they did.

As they walked down the street a million thoughts raced through Reid's head. What if she was missing? We had no idea where Noah was, or if he was even the unsub. She needed to be there. Oh god, please be there.

When Reid saw a bag of seven sandwiches dropped on the ground, his heart began to race. He ran down the block to the sandwich shop, no trace of her.

When Reid turned around with the saddest and angriest look in his eyes, Morgan understood right away and ran back to the station, Reid following behind.

When they arrived back, everyone was even more panicked than when they left.

"She's gone." Reid said, holding back tears.

She's go-" before Reid could finish his sentence he bursted out into tears.

JJ rushed to hug him, Morgan and Emily following her lead.

Rossi and Hotch exchanged concerned looks and Hotch began to speak.

"Conference room, now"

As everyone gathered into the conference room, Hotch immediately called Garica and informed her on what was going on. Garcia was on the verge of tears when she remembered she had to get her friend back.

"No time for tears, let's find our girl genius and bring her home," Garcia said hopefully.

"Garcia," Rossi said, "see if you can trace her cellphone."

Garcia typed quickly, the rest of the team on edge.

"Nada," Garcia said, "he must've turned it off."

"But who exactly?" JJ questioned, "We never even identified a definite suspect."

"Noah," Reid said quickly, '"It has to be Noah."

"Okay," Hotch started "We need to focus. Garcia, trace any cell phone records of Noah in the past 24 hours, and dig up anything you can find about Noah's past and present. Prentiss and JJ, I want you to recall everything you know about Jo and Noah's previous relationship and see if any behavior can lead to a location. Rossi, and I will go over everything with the local police and make sure everything about Noah is at our fingertips. Reid, I want you to call Jo's family and bring them in and talk to them."

Everyone gave a nod of acceptance and got to work.

Reid was angry. He wanted to help find Jo. But he knew Hotch was right. Out of everyone, he was the right person to talk to her family. So, he called Jo's mother straight away, telling her what had happened and for her and Jo's grandmother to come down to the station. After, he called Cindy with the same information.

When they arrived, they all looked panicked. Crying all at once, they asked a million questions. Feeling like he was going to cry himself, he tried to assure them that they would find them and this was the best team to do so. He explained that Noah is almost definitely the unsub, all of them believing it straight away, not shocked that he would do something like this.

"I can't lose my daughter like I lost my husband!" Jo's mother cried out, collapsing into her own mother's arms. Cindy gave Ried a look and the two left the room to give them some privacy.

"So, how are YOU doing?" Cindy asked Reid, closing the door behind her.

"Truthfully, bad," he felt tears begin to form at the thought of Jo, "really bad Cindy. I am trying to stay calm but I'm screaming inside. All my life I've been alone, a few friends here and there. My mother was my only real friend outside of the BAU," he was crying now, "I just, I can't lose her, I can't lose her."

He cried as Cindy took him into her arms, attempting to calm him down.

Letting go a few moments later, Reid told Cindy to go wait with Jo's family.

"I'm gonna find this guy Cindy. I promise. I won't let her leave us."

"I know you will Spencer," Cindy responded lightly.

Reid still felt like crying.

"Cindy, I never got to tell her that I.." Reid's voice trailed off, cracking as he spoke.

"She knows," Cindy responded with a smile.

Reid managed a slight smile.

"Now go save our girl," Cindy said hopefully.

Reid walked away and towards the conference room, attempting to keep all negatives thoughts out of his head. In all honesty though, Reid felt broken. He walked into the conference room and when everyone looked at him with worried eyes, he felt the urge to cry again. But he didn't. Instead, he focused all of his attention on finding Jo. That's what was important.