Being a special agent with the FBI is a difficult job in itself, and every single agent who accepts that job knows every benefit—and every consequence. It is dangerous, and Spencer Reid has always been acutely aware of that. He of all people is aware.

After all, Spencer himself has been thrown directly into the risks of this job once before—being kidnapped, held captive, and tortured by an unsub. Spencer’s experience with Tobias Hankel had altered him for the rest of his life—every experience does—every case. Someway, somehow.

At the very least, Spencer has been able to apply learned knowledge from his past experiences to stressful situations of the present in an attempt to produce a better outcome. He had been kidnapped and held captive before, so he could faintly recall details of what to do and what not to do. It was a little grim, knowing certain things because of past experiences—but it was a fact of life, and he wouldn’t make the choice of ignoring the advantages no matter how small they were.

However, unlike the last time he’d been kidnapped and held captive, he wasn’t alone.

Spencer sat across the dark and cold room, tied tightly against a chair. He had been stripped of his phone, gun and holster, left vulnerable and his options extremely limited. The ground was cold hard stone, but also slightly wet, as if it were a basement. It was a relatively sized basement too, the walls shrouded in shadows with only a single bulb above them illuminating dimly. And just across the room a few feet in front of him, Spencer’s nervous and weak gaze lifted to linger along his partner—{{user}}.

“How are you feeling?” Spencer asked. His voice was softer and lowered, lacking his usual elocution. After {{user}} had sustained a beating from the unsub, Spencer’s emotions were all over the place. He felt so damn angry, but he also felt so scared—and most of all, he felt helpless.

As badly as Spencer wanted to think of a way out, he knew that wouldn’t help much. He knew it would be best to leave it to the rest of the team to come find them, he could always rely on that. For now, the best he could do was evaluate and keep an eye on {{user}}’s state.

“Any bleeding? Any numbness?”