After working with Spencer Reid, you find it rare when he is wrong. The team of agents recognized this as they watched Crime Scene Investigators dig of the remains of dozens of girls, and witnessing the arrest of the monster who created such a thing. "How'd you know?" Emily asked. The sound of pouring rain over the crime scene was overwhelming, but didn't stop the people hard at work doing their jobs.

"I just realized I knew all along." the young man sighed, and dug his hands deep in his pockets. Derek Morgan turned to his friend, and sent a worried expression.

"Listen, we're all sorry about Julia." he said. Reid's eyes popped up, and he shrugged. "How close were you with the poor girl?"

"I was 2 when she was born. Our mom's would have coffee and I would sit there with this little tiny baby in my arms, while Madison, who was 5 at the time, looked after us." Spencer explained, not worrying about his body becoming sobbing wet. "We would always be there for each-other. My mom loved her, and whenever her dad would come home angry, Julia would come over. Madison would always stay behind and make sure everything was okay, Madison was extremely mentally strong,"

"More so than Julia?" JJ asked.

"Both of them had great masks." Reid reflected. "Always caring about others before themselves. I remember once when Julia slept over, and we had stayed up really late the night before so she slept in. I went in and saw her, and her pillow as covered in this beige color and I realized it was make-up. When she woke up, I saw she had bruises all over her face. At first she tried to lie, but I am really good at picking up when people do that so I saw through it. Then she explained how her father would hit her and her sister, and Madison had learned how to do make-up and made sure they were set before they left the house."

"Dad's away on business." Julia said weakly as we walked down the stairs to her basement and into her room. "We're safe here for now. Mom's upstairs sleeping, and Madison's at a friend's house." it was the last day of May, and she and Spencer were getting together to relax before she had to start studying for finals, and he would help her.

"Is everything alright? You seem... off." Spencer examined, sitting in the bean-bag chair.

"Yah, I'm fine." Julia nodded, and sat on her bed. He could tell she had no intentions of leaving her house. Her face was make-up free, and her t-shirt and capris were showing off all of the cuts and bruises on her legs.

"How about the rest of your family? I haven't seen anyone around here lately." she bit her bottom lip, a sure tell that she was debating truth versus lie in her head.

"My mom sleeps a lot." Julia's soft voice said quietly. "I don't know, I mean I love her to death but she doesn't actually raise us anymore. And my sister... there's something wrong with her."

"What do you mean?" Julia stood up and guided Spencer to the other downstairs bedroom, and went into the bottom drawer of her sister's room, and pulled out a bag of all different types of prescription pills and drugs. "Good god."

"This family is falling apart." a small tear slipped down her face. "To be honest, mom has been sleeping for four days straight, every so often I hear footsteps to the bathroom, but that's about it. And Madison hasn't been home in over 2 weeks. Last time I saw her it was when dad was home. She climbed through a window, took a bag much larger than this one, and ran off again." one tear turned into another, and soon they were pooling in her eyes and streaming down her cheeks.

"Julia, I am so sorry!" he leaned forward and gave his best friend a hug as she shook in his arms. While holding her, he imagined what it would be like sitting on the sunny porch with her in his small arms, sitting beside a young Madison as the two of them ate popsicles.

He imagined Madison's short brown hair with straight bangs, pink t-shirt and loose, knee-length jean shorts. He imagined the innocence that she once radiated with, the young girl who's only evil was the strange actions that her father sometimes did when he would come home a very different person. Her innocence in believing everything in the world was good, and nothing was going to hurt her.

He grew up with Julia, always surrounded with love from her mother and sister. She was the one that could also bring a smile to anyone's face at any time. She loved performing and being very active, and Spencer always knew he was lucky to grow up with such an influence.

Twelve short years later, they weren't just hitting rock bottom, they were blowing past it over, and over, and over again. Just when nobody thought it could get any worse, of course it did. "Come home with me!" Spencer urged suddenly. Julia pulled away.

"I couldn't possibly." she stated. "I'm sorry but I have to wait here for my sister to come home, and make sure my mom is alright."

"We can get your mom help, and find your sister! Julia we have to get out of here! I can't bear the thought of your dad coming home again and hurting you like he did before." she shook her head at his words.

"My house, your house. It's all the same. It's going to happen sooner or later but I am strong enough to take it. You don't have to worry, I'm not your responsibility."

"Jules, you're twelve years old! You're too young to have no help raising yourself. Like it or not, I am here and I am never going to let you go." she ran back into his arms and hung onto him for dear life, as if the second she let go, he would vanish into midair and never come back.

For the rest of the day, homework was forgotten, and Julia got her first good sleep in ages. Spencer lay beside her, reading his thick book while his thick glasses were perched on his face.

She moved lightly, and scooted next to him, and he lay a cover over them both. "Mom would understand if I didn't come home." he thought, and scooted down beside her.

He looked down from his book to see that her eyes were open, and she was looking up at him with her deep green eyes. "Are you staying?" he nodded. "Good, I need a good sleep for once." she sighed, and scooted closer to the heat.

"Shhh... close your eyes." confused, she did what she was told, immidiently feeling the effects of extreme fatuige dragging over her body. She knew she would be safe, though. The room was dimming as the sun was going down, and for the first time for as long as she could remember, she knew that she would be alright, at least for the duration of time he spent beside her. No one could hurt her now.

As she drifted quickly, she imagined herself the next morning, waking up with all of her scars and bruises gone, to a freshly baked breakfast by her happy mother, who kissed her husband off to work and adjusted his tie. She wished that Madison would be off to school, finishing off eleventh grade, and herself finishing off sixth.

Although none of that would happen, she knew that come the time when morning light shown through her window, she would remain as safe and sound that she is right now, cuddled up to her.

The team walked into the BAU headquarters after a long flight back. None of them had any intentions of staying, it was usually like that after not a single person was saved, but Spencer knew that there was something that had to be done. He walked quickly into Penelope Garcia's office and shut the door quickly, startling her. "G-man you scared the hell out of me!"

"Sorry Garcia. I do need a favor from you, though." he requested.

"Make it quick, doll face. I'm tired and I want to go home." Spencer pulled up a stool and scooted towards the exhausted blonde.

"I need you to search up a name for me. Julia Gerone." her fingers went to work quickly, and soon a face, just like the one he remembered from around the last time he saw her, popped up, and he felt his heart drop.

"Uhh... Julia Marie Gerone. Born in Las Vegas, Nevada. Born on February 17th 1984. So she would be... 28 right now." she continued scrolling through the information.

"Any death certificates?" Garcia shook her head.

"I got a birth one, but that just shows that this girl popped out of the wound... but there is a missing person's report." he opened the file. "Apparently she went out for a walk and never came back." Spencer looked at it closely.

"Who filed it?"

"Uhhh... a woman by the name of Jolene Franks."

"Aunt Jolene! Kay thanks Garcia! Have a nice night!" he grabbed his sweater and walked out, seeing that everyone was already gone for the evening. Once he was settled and home, Spencer grabbed his phone and his old number book, picking out the number he knew what their Aunt Jolene's, and dialing it, though the only sound he got was the monotone voice saying the number was disconnected.

That's as far as it went. The next day Spencer showed up at work and there was no discussion about the Gerone case, but it just continued right on into the next set of brutal murders to face their day.

"If he find out I'm over here, he'll kill me." Julia warned as she and Spencer were sitting in the closet of his room, and he was fixing her up after another one of her father's brutal beatings.

"He won't, don't worry. The average alcoholic has trouble keeping up with himself, let alone someone else. You said Madison is out, right?" she nodded. "Just say you went with her." the eleven year old girl nodded, and she was finally taped up. She leaned back with a sigh against the wall of the stuffy space, and listened carefully to the sound of Christmas Carols playing through the house.

"I wish I celebrated Christmas like this..." her voice was soft and quiet, her eyes sad as they made contact with her best friend's.

"Just stay and have Christmas with us." Spencer suggested, and quietly opened the closet door, allowing more air in. It was Christmas Eve, and you could tell by the atmosphere of the Reid household.

"I can't. Daddy will kill me." he could tell by her voice that she really wanted to stay, but couldn't.

"Why do you call him that?" Spencer snapped. "A daddy isn't someone who hits their children and makes them terrified."

"Daddy loves me, he just also loves his beer. When he drinks he gets angry." he noticed her lip twitch, and decided to drop the subject.

"You should go home..." he said sadly. "It's almost dark."

"Yeah." she leaned forward and the two stood their hugging for a while. "Goodnight, Mr. Reid." she leaned up and kissed his cheek before scurrying out the back door and across the grass to her house and back through her window.

What a life.

I promise it gets better than this! Please review and let me know your thoughts!

m.E