Title: Actions Speak Louder than Words
By: TT92
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Rating: PG
Pairing: JJ/Reid
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, or the characters involved. I just make them bend to my will in my free time.
Summary: The team is sent on a case to South Dakota where they must deal with a series of abductions and beatings. However, they learn that there is much they have to deal with on the inside. Reid Centric mostly. Reid/JJ towards the end. Post Jones.

***

Monday morning at the FBI Quantico headquarters was much like Monday morning at any other workplace. Employees stumbled in, groggy and still excited over there weekend adventures.

As agent Dr. Spencer Reid walked into the bullpen of the behavioral analysis unit, he knew that the actions of the last case in New Orleans were not forgotten. He had skipped a flight out to Texas purposely, and lied about it later. Only Gideon knew about what Reid had said about not missing planes anymore. The entire plane ride home Reid had kept quiet, processing everything that had happened recently.

Memories began to float in and out of his brain. The strongest of those were coming from night that he was held captive by Tobias Hankel, a man with multiple personalities, two of which wanted Reid dead. The other decided instead to fill him with Dilaudid, prescription heroin.

'Don't think about that night.' He thought to himself sternly. When his mind began to go to memories of the three weeks he had taken off or of the other night, however, Reid could no longer distinguish which memories hurt worst of all. 'Concentrate on work, concentrate on work.' He commanded himself as he felt a shudder move down his back.

He saw his best friend, Derek Morgan, talking to the newest member of the BAU family, agent Emily Prentiss. They were the only two there, and it made Reid uncomfortable. Emily especially had a reason to be angry at him. Reid had taken way too many of his frustrations out on her in the last few weeks. Only lately had anyone else picked up on it too, including Morgan. Reid knew he was going to have to tread carefully.

"Hey guys," he said as normally as he could. Morgan nodded a small hello while Emily only returned a cold look.

'Well, I deserve that.' He thought to himself bitterly. He was entertaining the notion of telling them about the promise he had made to Gideon. He opened his mouth to begin when JJ came out into the bullpen.

"Hey guys, a new case just came in. Hotch and Gideon are already there." She told them quickly. The three other agents followed her quickly.

In the conference room, files were spread out at the head of the table. Hotch and Gideon were comparing them and sharing ideas or notes. When they recognized the presence of the others, Hotch nodded his head, alerting JJ to being her presentation.

"Okay, this case is very different. Last night a girl walked into a Subway in Watertown, South Dakota telling the cashier that she had been abducted. The cashier called the police and they began to question her. She told them the location of the abandoned building she was held in, and the local authorities searched it. They found four more girls. These girls were beaten severely and heavily drugged. However, the unsub was gone and he left no evidence of himself." JJ began.

"How are the other girls now?" Morgan asked.

"Not good. Two slipped into a coma and the other two are unconscious and in critical condition." Hotch said.

"What about the girl who go away? How did she manage it?" Reid asked, clearly amazed. One of five girls escaping? It seemed quite odd especially because it was probable that the unsub was working in a very similar way.

"They don't know yet, but according to early reports, it looked like she was drugged as well because she had no defensive wounds. However, she might have been drugged with something different, something that didn't work as the unsub planned." Hotch answered.

"Do they believe he's going to attack again?" Emily asked.

"They don't know currently. Because of the fact that he has been taking a girl a day, it appears he might soon. However, he has not made a threat to attack again." JJ answered.

"Why didn't they call us if they thought they had serial kidnapping?" Emily inquired.

"The parents reported it to different police. These victims are associated with two different towns. Because of this, each force thought there were only two missing girls instead of four." Hotch said.

"What's the connection between the victims?" Morgan inquired.

"That's just it," JJ said. "There doesn't appear to be one. First we have Corra Nonnas. 18, senior at Lakewood High school in Lakewood, a little town about a half hour from Watertown," as JJ said this, the crime scene picture appeared on the projection screen behind JJ.

Reid was amazed at the extent of her injuries. Bruises and gashes covered her body; it was a miracle she survived.

"Next," JJ continued. "Haley Siverons. 16, junior at Campton High School in Campton, Minnesota. Although that's farther away that Lakewood, it's still very close. Next Ginger Hevern. 17, junior at Lakewood. Rachel Johnson, 13. She's only a seventh grader at Campton." JJ finished quietly.

Reid could by now that they were most likely dealing with a white, older male who went after girls who were around the teenage age. He noticed that Rachel probably looked older than 13, which is how she became the target of the unsub.

"And finally, Kristy Aden. She was the one who went to the Subway. She's 14 and a freshman at Lakewood." JJ concluded. "Their injuries included what appears to be severe physical beatings. There does not appear to be any sexual injuries at this time, implying that there was no sexual motive."

"Varying age group could imply that he chooses his victims at random. He might not know them, or at least not very well. Because they all appear to be close to the same age, he might consider them all to be the same age." Reid chipped in.

They all did appear to be the same age. While Corra, Haley, and Ginger all had the faces of 17 or 18 year olds, Rachel and Kristy looked older because they were taller. Of course, Reid had assumed most of this. The crime scene photos, other than Kristy's, showed so much injury that this was harder to guess.

While Hotch looked as if he agreed, Gideon shook his head.

"These towns are so small that it's hard for him not to know them. Lakewood has less than 1,300 people and Campton has just under 2,000." Gideon declared.

"We'll need to talk to Kristy and the others when they wake up." Hotch stated.

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"Plane's taking off in 40 minutes." Hotch commanded.

"Pack warmly. South Dakota was just ravaged by a storm." Gideon added.

***

Reid hurried home to pack. He was praying this case would go by quickly because he didn't want to be gone long. As he was packing his toiletries, he saw the vials in the medicine cabinet.

'The second one's almost empty.' He thought bitterly to himself. 'I'll have to look into that when we get back.'

It was true; Reid had been using ever since he got back from those horrible days in Georgia. At first it was to wean himself off the drugs, but then it escalated when the withdrawal symptoms were too much for Reid too handle. He took three weeks off when he returned home. By week two, he already had started using them for a high pain threshold.

"Quit thinking about that." He said aloud. Too many thoughts were cluttering his brain. "You need to go to South Dakota and help those girls…"

'South Dakota. 40th state to enter the union, called the Mount Rushmore State, current population around 750,000, wow that's small…'

Reid continued to think of every obscure fact he knew about the little mid-western state while he finished packing every warm article of clothing he had.

The team huddled together on the plane. They were discussing the unique aspects of this case.

"I don't understand why he would keep them if he doesn't do anything with them after the first day." JJ stated. "Corra's bruises show that she had not been beaten for a few days. It appeared that everyday he had a new victim, but he never dumped the others."

"He could have some ritual with the girls. He only wants them for a day." Morgan replied.

"And he must not be able to let them go. He probably let them look at him, and if he did, he couldn't let them go. Some of the early reports show that the girls were hydrated and fed enough to stay alive, so he must have been planning something." Hotch said.

"If he wanted them to see him, this would imply revenge." Reid said. "Of course, that means that there is a higher chance that he knew the victims and that they possibly knew him. He wants control over them, control he didn't have, leading him to take the revenge."

"Which means there must be some connection between the victims. They would all have come into contact with the unsub." Emily said.

"Because of the fact that they were all drugged, he most likely is not physically able to restrain them. He is probably an older, most likely white based on the region we're entering, and does not have a commanding job. He is taking the command he desperately wants by enacting on these girls. Because he has not contacted anyone else, he does not want command over anyone else, just these girls. Their connection will lead us to him." Gideon summed up the discussion.

They landed in Watertown a few hours later. As they arrived, they were greeted by a man who Reid assumed to be the head detective.

"Are you the FBI agents?" Detective Stanten greeted her.

"We are. I'm Agent Jaraeu, we spoke on the phone…" JJ went through her routine of introducing everyone to Detective Stanten.

Reid was only half paying attention. He had been very interested in the scenery and differences of South Dakota compared to Virginia. First off, there was about a foot and a half of snow. Second, everything was very open. Reid remembered this from the desert of Nevada, but the prairie was very different.

"What has been going on the last few hours?" Hotch inquired after the pleasantries ended.

"Nothing much. The tox reports should come back in an hour or two. We have been trying to interview Kristy, but she has not been the most cooperative." Detective Stanten told them.

"Okay. Emily, JJ, why don't you two try to go talk to Kristy. Maybe she'll feel more comfortable talking to women." Hotch ordered, knowing that often female victims often had trouble opening up after an attack due to shame. "Reid and Gideon can head start to interview the families and try to find the connection. Morgan and I will go to the crime scene and look for things there."

Everyone headed out in the direction they were told.

"The girl is down, I'm standing here…what am I doing?" Morgan muttered to himself.

"What is he doing?" Detective Stanten asked. He had offered to go along with Hotch and Morgan to help them around the unfamiliar territory.

"Trying to get in the guy's head. People say that eyes are a window to a person's soul, well crime scenes are often windows into the unsub's head."

"Unsub?" the detective repeated.

"Unknown subject, or the man who did this. It's shorthand that you'll here all of us use." Hotch explained.

"You know this was a man?" detective Stanten inquired.

"Most likely it is. While drugging can be done by both men and women, beatings this severe are usually done by males. Females would more likely do something more passive."

"Detective, did the girl say if she saw anyone?" Morgan suddenly called.

"I'm not for sure." The detective replied.

"You're not for sure? I thought you said you talked to her." Hotch said quickly.

"Well, not me personally. I wasn't called until four this morning. We didn't even call you guys until about six because we had no idea what we were dealing with." The detective replied.

"When did the call come in again?" Hotch asked, trying to figure out the unsub's timeline.

"Around midnight."

"Well, most likely the unsub wasn't around at the time. He would have stopped her, given her something else to stop her from running. He hadn't beaten her, the ritual wasn't completed." Morgan said.

"So what was he doing? He was gone long enough for her to get up, leave, and get help." Hotch said, following Morgan's line of thinking.

"I don't know. But all I can think of is either he started to get cocky and felt he could leave, or he always leaves, and this time he screwed up."

"Which would mean the ritual is not fulfilled," Hotch continued.

"Which would mean he is likely to strike again," Morgan said

"And more violently." Hotch finally concluded.

"How do you know there is a ritual?" Stanten asked, appalled at what he had just heard.

"He always took them to the same place. He took girls that appeared to be the same age. He did it repeatedly with the same number of girls to the same number of days. This all implies that this was part of a ritual that he believes that he must fulfill, and the only way to do this is to commit these crimes." Hotch explained.

"Something's off though." Morgan said. "I'm thinking that this place would be swamped with DNA. He was obviously comfortable, and if he was leaving from being cocky, then he would have thought he couldn't have been caught. But this place is clean, there's nothing. Not even the blood of the girls."

"That is odd. Who worked this last night?" Hotch asked.

"Officer Matt Heiden. You think he screwed something up?" Detective Stanten asked.

"I have no idea, but it is possible. Something's not right. Can we talk to him?" Hotch asked.

"I have no problem with it, but you're going to have to wait. He works with narcotics and helped us out last night by picking up a shift. He had to go undercover today and might not be back for a few days. He could just make the biggest bust of his career. He's going to go places that kid." Detective Stanten said with a smile.

"Well, when he gets back, we'll talk to him. Something could have happened and he didn't know to look for it." Hotch said.

"I'm going to go check out the other rooms." Morgan said turning away.

An hour and a half later, Reid felt exhausted. He had been interviewing the parents of the two girls from Lakewood. Both had insisted that they were good girls who would never be associated with something as terrible as this. The other two families had said the same thing according to Gideon. Nothing useful had been revealed; the girls' parents did not want to say anything bad about their babies. This only meant more work for the BAU team.

'Boy, I really wish I could go home right now.' Reid began to think to himself. 'Then I could take some…'

Reid suddenly sat upright, frightened by his own thoughts. When had he gone from needing the drug for his body to wanting it for his mind? Reid then approached the realization that he had finally achieved the last sign of an addiction; his want for the drug had become stronger than the need.

'I'm an addict. I'm an addict.' Reid thought to himself over and over.

He was so immersed in this thought that when Gideon spoke again, he nearly jumped.

"So, other than they are all victims of the same unsub, what do we have?" Gideon asked.

"Well, uh, they do fairly well in school, are well liked and considered good girls. And they all looked around the same age." Reid replied.

"But what distinguishes them? Many girls fit that profile. Why does the unsub choose them?" Gideon said, not so much asking Reid.

Reid's cell phone rang. He talked on it for a few minutes as Gideon stared at the pictures.

"What is your link?" Gideon asked himself quietly.

"Gideon?" Reid suddenly said. "That was JJ. She wants me to go down to the hospital; they need some help with reading her body language."

"Is she hiding something?" Gideon asked in clear surprise.

"They aren't sure. JJ said she felt something was off, but they couldn't figure it out." Reid replied.

"Go down. We'll probably end up there sooner or later." Gideon replied. Reid left to head to the hospital.

'What would she hide?' Reid pondered as he walked into the hospital JJ instructed him to go to. 'And why is it so cold here?'

Although he had packed warmly, Reid still felt cold in the 30 degree weather.

"Spence!" she called out when saw him. "A little nippy out there?" She added with a laugh at Reid's shivering.

"I have a new appreciation for the mild winters of Virginia. What's going on now?" he asked her as she approached him.

"Emily's talking to her now. She was very strange at first. When we told her we were cops, she rolled her eyes. However, she always referred to us as Ms. Jareau or Ms. Prentiss." JJ began.

"That could be culture. She could have been raised to say that, and the rolling of the eyes could be related to something else. Who knows?" Reid replied.

"The more we talked to her, the more comfortable and cooperative she was. What was really weird was that she didn't even know there were other victims. Most likely, it's the drug that causing the problems, but something else feels wrong. Emily and I can't figure it out, but maybe you can." JJ said.

"By now, the drug would have worn off. She was able to locate where she was, navigate herself, and seek help. Something else must be wrong. What have you told her?" Reid said.

"She knows there are other victims, but she doesn't know who they are or what happened. You can talk to her. I'm going to talk to the doctors about the other girls and their conditions. Just over there." JJ pointed to a door as she turned and left.

Reid turned around and went over to the room JJ pointed at. He could tell she was from this area. Many people here were of Scandinavian descent, and Kristy's light blond hair and blue eyes didn't hide that. Reid also took notice of the few bruises and scratches she sustained.

Emily noticed Reid's presence and immediately tensed up.

'I'm not going to snap at you in front of a victim.' Reid thought angrily to himself. 'I deserve a little credit.'

"Hey Reid. Kristy, this is Agent Spencer Reid. He's with the FBI too." Emily said.

Reid waved to her. Kristy acknowledged him with a nod of her head. It was obvious that she was incredibly tired. Reid knew he would have to work quickly to get something useful out of her.

"Hi Kristy. Can you tell me what you remember?" Reid asked.

"That seems to be the question of the day." She replied with a sad smile. "I'm going to tell you now that's it not a lot."

"That's okay. There may be something that you would consider unimportant that could make all the difference. What one person can perceive as insignificant, can be perceived by another as their idol. We can't judge what others view as important or unimportant by our own views." Reid said.

Kristy stared at Reid, but it was not the stare Reid had expected. Instead of disbelief or amazement, Reid saw what he almost considered to be understanding on her face.

"You're a genius." She said.

"Technically, yes. I have and IQ of 187." Reid said, not wanting to go over such things again.

Kristy got a smile on her face and Emily got a confused look on her face. Reid assumed that this was different.

"Okay, two things. One, I don't believe in Intelligence Quotient. It is relative to that of one's location which goes though such changes of flux it is a bad idea to judge such a thing by. One can place a child who struggles in school in a third world country and they will be considered a genius. I mean, look at the Spanish culture. They use two different verbs to mean the same thing, to be. However, they use estar to describe location. Ser is used to describe something that is permanent or isn't changed that often. Estar is used to describe something that changes often and is never permanent. Second thing, I said you were a genius, I didn't ask." Kristy stated.

Reid was taken aback. He had heard people talk like this before. Many of the people they had put away were highly intelligent, which was the only way they were able to commit serial acts, but she was a child. 14, Reid remembered. Still bewildered at her statement, he decided to continue with the interrogation.

"You still have not answered my question." He replied.

"Sorry." Kristy said. She then heaved a sigh. "I was walking home from my friend's house. Usually I drive, but my car hasn't been working to well lately. I thought I heard something, but I couldn't see anyone or anything, so I kept walking. Then, I felt something in my neck and then it's blackness. Next thing I know, I'm in this old building laying on the floor. I looked around as my strength was coming back, and I saw the Subway. Then I recognized the road and I realized I was in Watertown."

Reid noticed her pause here and she suddenly got a pensive look on her face.

"I was so scared and confused… I just wanted to get out, so I ran to it. The clerk called the police, and I sat in that Subway for two hours. After the police interrogated me, an EMT talked to me and they got me here. Police have been talking to me every now and then. And that brings us to this present moment." She finished, again with a sad smile on her face.

Reid knew that he was supposed to be looking at Kristy's body language, but he was observing Emily's as well. She looked surprised, telling Reid that Kristy must not have said a lot of this before. This implied that Kristy trusted him, but he had no idea why. After attacks, female victims hardly ever reach out to males.

"Kristy, did the cops ever tell you anything?" Reid asked.

"Nope. They asked me questions. They even brought pictures and asked me to identify the man who did it." Kristy replied.

Reid and Emily shared a look. They knew that something wasn't right. If the local authorities were that far along, why didn't the BAU know? Reid began to wonder, and he pulled out the case files from his bag.

"Kristy, you know now that there are other victims, right?" Reid asked anxiously.

"Yes." She replied.

"Do recognize these girls? Two go to the same school as you, but how about the other two?" Reid said, pulling out the school pictures of the girls and handing them to Kristy.

"Of course." Kristy said.

"You do?" Reid and Emily said almost at the same time. "Is there anything that's similar between you all?" Reid asked as well, getting excited.

"Well, other than the obvious, not a lot. Corra's a major drama queen. You know, plays, oral interp stuff like that. She's kind of crazy but she's really nice. Haley is your all around picture perfect girl. Good grades, good at sports, social butterfly. She was always nice to me. Ginger, goll, she's just the sweetest person you've ever met. She'd never hurt a fly and she's always so considerate. And Rachael? Complete tomboy. She played varsity volleyball, and she's a seventh grader! And me, well, I manage sports and I'm a debater. Not too much in common." Kristy finished.

"Obvious? What's so obvious?" Reid asked. No one had picked up anything in common between the girls.

"It's pretty apparent." Kristy said. All she got in response were Reid and Emily's looks of confusion. "Our addresses?" she replied sarcastically.

"Birdle?" Emily asked still confused.

"Birdle addresses cover over 40 square miles; you can't just consider you all to be similar just because you're from the same city." Reid replied.

"You're right. In rural South Dakota, even if you live in those limits, you still pretty much pick your hometown. But I was talking about the roads, not the city." Kristy replied. "Edge Lane, Shore Drive, Cooper Road, we all live on Lake Cooper. Or lived technically. I moved last September." Kristy finished.

Reid was mentally kicking himself. He should have seen that. It all made sense, they could have come into contact with the unsub at a lake function. Emily was already on her cell phone calling Gideon.

"Kristy, are there any lake functions that every girl here would have gone to?" Reid asked, excitement rising in his voice.

"Every girl? I don't know about that…" Kristy replied.

"What do you mean?" Reid asked.

"Well, Corra's family isn't really into the fact that they live on the third nicest lake in Eastern South Dakota thing. They don't own a boat or anything, and Rachael's is very similar. Of course, they might still participate a little in some things, like the Lake Cooper Appreciation Days, or Fourth of July things. I know Haley really well by lake means. She was my neighbor. Well, not technically, there was a summer home that separated our homes, but we considered ourselves neighbors. Dr. Reid," Kristy suddenly looked up, her eyes wide, "how badly were they hurt?"

Reid was unsure how to answer that. Emily got off her phone after Kristy asked the question, leaving Reid to answer on his own. He saw the emotions in Kristy's eyes. Raw fear covered her face.

"Uh, they were injured, uh, pretty badly." Reid said shakily.

"Are they okay?"

"JJ is talking to the doctors. We can tell you what she finds out." Emily reassured her with a smile. "There she is now."

Emily and Reid turned to talk to JJ.

"Hey, what'd you find out?" Emily asked.

"This guy is really messed up. Corra and Haley are still in comas. Doctors said that both could go either way still. Ginger woke up, but she is nowhere near competent. Right now, they are still trying to get her to tell her family members. The doctors don't think she'll be able to tell us anything even when she competent again." JJ said sadly. "Rachael still remains unconscious, but things are looking up."

Emily and Reid began processing this information.

"Oh, and we got tox reports back. This is weird, he used something different for Kristy, but the others were all relatively similar." JJ said pulling out copies of the files for Emily and Reid to read.

"Yeah, it looks like he mixed Etomidate and Rohypnol." Reid said,

"What does that mean?" JJ asked anxiously.

"Etomidate is a sedative essentially. However, it only works for a short while. Rophypnol is also a sedative, but it also causes amnesia. When you combine these two drugs, the new result will easily take out a person fast. He changed the ratio a bit each time. It was always rather similar, and this could be why he changed when he got to Kristy's. And Kristy's is…" Reid said as he quickly scanned the report. Suddenly his head perked up, scaring JJ and Emily.

"We have to talk to everyone else right away." Reid said, taking off towards the parking lot.

"Wait, why?" Emily called after him as she and JJ hurried to follow.

"We may have a witness." He simply stated.

***

or a research note, the first part of this is mostly true. However, once I get into the amnesia parts, I've, uh, embellished a bit. Anterograde amnesia does exist, but I don't think you can get the memory back. Okay, now I'm ruining the surprise.

If you like it, please review. If you didn't like it, please review. If you are feeling ambiguous, please review. I'll shut up now.

Everyone was seated at a table in a conference room the Watertown police had offered them. Reid was up front ready to give his presentation.

"Okay, the unsub injected the first four girls with a powerful sedative. The girls would have had no motor control, no idea of anything around them. They would be completely unresponsive. With Corra and Hailey, he used almost the exact same dose. However, with Rachael and Ginger he lightened the dose, but the amount was still large enough for there to be no interaction between him and the girls. Most likely, he wanted the girls to know they were being attacked, but he still wanted them to remain powerless. That's why he changed drugs with Kristy. He used Diazepam, a drug that can cause a near sleep. Kristy would appear to almost be dozing. She wouldn't completely be asleep. He combined this with the Etomidate he used on the other girls as well in order to sedate Kristy." Reid stated.

"Would he change to show her that had more power, or is he getting braver?" Hotch asked.

"It could be both. I think he was leaning more towards power though, because if he really wanted to be brave, he would have significantly lowered the dose of the drugs he was giving before. He knew that they worked, so he trusted them. However, he changed to something that is known for sedating a person and leaving them partially conscious. However, he screwed up. Somehow he got the ratios wrong, in fact, I think he switched them. In order to keep Kristy down for a long time, he would have needed a large amount of Etomidate. The amount he used was rather small, but the amount of Diazepam was huge." Reid finally finished.

"So, what does this have to do with a witness?" JJ asked.

"Oh," Reid stumbled, forgetting about that part "well, Diazepam creates a near sense of sleep, not real sleep. Kristy was most likely aware of her surroundings subconsciously."

"Even with the sedative?" Morgan interrupted.

"Even with that. The amount wasn't enough to make her completely unaware." Reid affirmed.

"Then why hasn't she told us anything?" Hotch spoke up. "She could have identified the man by now."

"Most likely because she is suffering from something called anterograde amnesia. This is a form of amnesia in which the person has the memory, but it is not transferred over into their long term memory." Reid answered.

"So the memory is just sitting somewhere in her brain where she can't remember it?" Morgan asked amazed.

"Yes." Reid said.

"So, how do we use it? If she hasn't remembered by now, will she ever?" Gideon asked.

"This is where it's confusing. You see, this is like the memories a person has from when they're babies. Because of a movement of a lobe in the brain around age 3, a person should not remember what happened before that time. However, some memories cross over and you experience a moment of déjà vu from a trigger in your later life." Reid explained.

"So how do we get her memory to cross over?" Hotch asked.

"We pull the trigger." Reid stated.

"And we find that by…" Morgan inquired.

"Getting to know her. It will most likely be related to this, and because of the nature of the drug, it will have something to do with something very deeply embedded in her brain." Reid answered.

"We profile her." Gideon added.

Reid nodded. Hotch got an uneasy look on his face.

"Reid, will this work for sure?" He asked nervously.

"Well, it's not 100 guaranteed. There have been cases of people victimized with this drug who experience flashbacks from minute things of their lives. They try to return to normal, and all of sudden they know everything that happened." Reid finished.

"Is there a high enough chance that it will work to try it?" Hotch asked, still looking uneasy about the idea.

"To try, definitely." Reid replied.

"Okay. You can work on that but first we need to determine how the unsub was able to get these drugs." Hotch.

"Rohypnol's a street drug. Anyone can get it." Morgan said.

"Diazepam is given to people who suffer from panic attacks, depression, some times insomnia, a lot of different things." Gideon stated. "The unsub could have a prescription for it."

"Etomidate is different. This is only given in emergency rooms to quickly sedate a patient. He'd have to be associated with a hospital to get access." Reid said.

"Did Kristy say anything about seeing him?" Hotch asked.

"She said she didn't, but she really didn't open up." JJ said.

"Until Reid came." Emily added.

"What?" JJ asked.

"With us, she gave short answers at first. She didn't trust us really. I mean, the longer we were there, the better it got, but Reid came and she trusted him." Emily said.

"Which is odd." Reid added. "Female victims often don't reach out, or if they do it would be to other females."

"Many things in this case aren't adding up." Hotch said. "At the scene, we expected to found tons of DNA and other things. There was nothing, nowhere near enough blood to support the injuries these girls received. Of course he could have taken them there after, but what was Kristy doing there if she wasn't supposed to be beaten there?" Hotch asked.

The team shook their heads.

"You know, Kristy said something about a cop trying to get her to ID the guy." Emily said. Reid nodded, having realized he forgot that.

"ID him? Wouldn't they have told us?" Morgan said.

"Would they have even needed us if they were that close?" Gideon said.

"Could these be dirty cops?" Emily asked.

"According to Stanten, the officer who responded was picking up a shift. However, he went undercover today on a drug bust. We can't talk to him for a few days, when they think he'll be back." Hotch said.

"We'll have to see if that can be sped up. I think he knows something that he's not telling. In the meantime, we'll have to look elsewhere for the answer. We now know the connection, Lake Cooper. Something that happened to this man makes him want to take out revenge on these girls because they are from this lake. Why?" Gideon inquired.

"He could have had some negative experience around this age and he's getting back at them for it." Emily said.

"Have Garcia look into accidents, or other incidents taking place in the last thirty years. He's between the ages of 30 and 40 now and he works at a hospital.

"I'll call her." Morgan said, leaving to take the call.

"Speak to the technology goddess." Garcia ordered Morgan when she answered.

"Hey beautiful." He replied

"I can't wait for you guys to come back." Garcia replied with a smile Morgan could hear, even over the distance.

"Why's that?"

"Because I have to make sure that you're not freezing over there. I checked, according to the National Weather Service, there is a high of 33." She explained.

"That just means that you'll have to warm me up when we get back." Morgan retorted. He heard Garcia give her evil giggle. "Listen, I need you to do a few searches for me."

"Oh, challenge me." She replied getting excited.

"First, search for any hospitals in this area that have reported robberies." Morgan said.

"Anything in particular?" Garcia asked, her computers firing up.

"Missing drugs." Morgan replied.

"Okay. I got something. It looks like a few weeks ago, the local Watertown hospital reported something missing. They didn't say what was stolen but it appears that an employee or someone in the hospital that night did it." Garcia answered. "I'm sending a list of patients and employees in that night."

"Great. Can you also cross check that list with anything associated with Lake Cooper?" Morgan inquired.

"Of course. I'll send that over as well when I get it." She replied.

"Can you also search for an incident that may have occurred at Lake Cooper in the last 30 years or so?" Morgan asked.

"What kind of incident are we talking? I mean, just in the last year I have a boating accident, a fire, an ice fishing accident…"

"Something associated with teenagers, around age 17, give or take. Something that would make someone want revenge." Morgan replied.

"I'll start the search, but that one will take a while. I'll send that over as well."

"Great, thanks. I gotta go." Morgan said.

"The hot tub will be ready anytime you are." Garcia told him.

Morgan smiled and turned back into the conference room.

"Okay, Garcia found that the major hospital here had a burglary a few weeks ago. She couldn't locate exactly what was missing, so we'll need to talk to the staff. She's sending over a list of patients and employees in that night." Morgan told the group. Hotch nodded his head.

"Well, most likely a patient didn't do it." Emily said. "They wouldn't know where to go in the hospital."

"No, they probably didn't, but we should check it out." Gideon stated.

"Reid, Morgan, head down to the hospital. Morgan, interview the staff and find out what you can about getting these drugs. Reid, do whatever it is that will get that memory. JJ, try to get the cop who did the scene back so we can question him. The rest of us will start looking into incidents involving Lake Cooper and the employee records." Hotch ordered.

"Back so soon?" Kristy asked Reid as he walked back into her room.

She looked like she had been dozing. Reid noticed that she appeared to have the same sad smile on her face.

"Uh, yeah. I need to talk to you some more." Reid said.

"About what? I know nothing more than what I have already told you." Kristy replied.

"Actually, you might. In fact you might have witnessed the entire ordeal." Reid said.

Kristy stared at him with disbelief.

"You see, you were injected with something that caused you to see this memory, but you didn't store it in your long term memory. We can get it to come over by triggering the memory, just like in-" Reid started to say but was interrupted.

"Autism" Kristy finished staring down at her hands.

This time, Reid stared at her. She looked up when Reid didn't say anything.

"People with autism often know things, but when asked a question won't understand how to respond to it. However, when a certain word is said, it can trigger something and then they'll say whatever the trigger leads to." Kristy said.

Reid was amazed. But, he wasn't amazed at this fact. He had known that this was very similar to autism. It was amazing to him that she knew this, that she had been able to respond to something so intelligently. Reid then realized that this was going to greatly affect his profile.

"Mr. Reid, are you all right?" She asked timidly after a few minutes.

"What? Oh uh yes. This is very much like autism. Anyway, to do this I'll have to get to know you, figure out what your trigger might be. Oh, and you can call me Reid. Everyone does." Reid said.

"I'm so sorry." She replied with a chuckle.

"Excuse me?" Reid asked.

"My life is so boring, you might just die. Oh, and about the Reid thing." She said laughing.

"I'm sure it's not that bad. My life hasn't been all that exciting." Reid replied.

"Mr. Reid, I have known you for like two hours and I know that you are a genius and an FBI agent. That's a bit more exciting than a 14 year old teenager whose main goal in life is to have a perfect GPA." She replied. "Do you want me to just start talking, or do you want to ask questions?"

"Probably both. I just need to learn enough about you. It's something common because otherwise someone would have said it by now and the memory would be present. I have a few questions that I'd like to start." Reid stated.

"You're in charge." Kristy said, sinking back into her bed getting comfortable.

"Well, why did you demeanor change so much when I arrived?" Reid asked.

"Did Ms. Prentiss tell you about the eyes rolling thing?" She asked with a smile.

"Uh, yes."

"If I don't talk to her and Ms. Jaraeu again, tell them I'm sorry. It wasn't personal." Kristy said.

"But why did you do it?" Reid asked again.

Kristy sighed.

"Because I didn't believe them." She replied quietly.

"About what?" Reid asked. This was very strange indeed.

"That they were FBI agents from Virginia who were looking into this case." Kristy replied simply.

"Why not?"

"Mr. Reid, when I told the local cops that I couldn't ID the man, well frankly, they got pissed. They wanted to catch the guy. All the pictures they were showing me were from some sex offender registry and for all I know, it could have been one of them. When I told the cop that I would tell someone that he was trying to get me to blame an innocent person, he just laughed. He said that soon enough, he was going to be so famous that no one would believe a kid who was drugged versus a cop. After that, I didn't trust any other cop that tried to talk to me.

"And then all of a sudden two FBI agents show up, claiming that they are investigating this, and they didn't bring a list of suspects. Oh yeah, like I was going to believe that." She said snorting.

"But you trusted me…."

"Well, I believed them when I saw you." Kristy said.

"Why?" Reid asked, still very confused.

"Because when you came in you looked like you were frigid." She replied with a laugh.

"It's 30 degrees outside!" Reid exclaimed.

"And if you were really a local cop pretending to be an FBI agent, then you wouldn't have even flinched." Kristy replied.

Seeing the look of disbelief on Reid's face, she smiled.

"Mr. Reid, back in January, we had highs of negative 30 some days. Trust me, this is warm for early March in South Dakota. I believed that there was no way that you could be from around here. And then I saw the way you act with Ms. Jaraeu and Ms. Prentiss and I knew that you were all too well acquainted to have just met each other. You and Ms. Jaraeu were especially close. Why doesn't Ms. Prentiss trust you?" Kristy said suddenly after pausing for a minute.

Reid was taken aback by most of what she had just said, but he nearly went into shock at her question.

"Who says she doesn't trust me?" Reid asked innocently, knowing the truth in his heart.

"Actions speak louder than words, Mr. Reid." Kristy replied with a laugh. "She tensed up immediately after you walked in. But don't worry, she doesn't trust Ms. Jareau much more than she does you."

Reid had made his conclusion about the profile for this girl; there wasn't one. The profile of a teenage girl showed that she would not have been this confident, nor this intuitive. Reid knew that this was uncharted territory and that the only way he would find the trigger would be by understanding her completely. And that took time. Deciding to keep it light, Reid decided to once again joke slightly.

"I thought I was asking the questions." He said with a small smile.

Kristy again smiled, but this time, this smile was one of knowledge. Reid looked forward to what she had to say before she had even started.

"Mr. Reid, if you listen to how I process things in my head, then I guarantee that you shall understand me better than most other people in the world do." Kristy replied.

Reid finally sat down in a plastic chair next to Kristy. He took out his legal pad and began to make notes. He knew that every bit of information would help.

A half hour later, Morgan looked into the door of the hospital room. He saw Reid talking very deeply with Kristy. He knocked and walked in.

"Hey, Reid." Morgan greeted him.

"Oh, hey Morgan. Kristy, this is Agent Derek Morgan." Reid said. Kristy gave him a small wave. "What'd you get?"

"Well, etomidate was not the stolen items from a few weeks ago. As it turns out, a few medical records were stolen, which is why it wasn't reported. Hospital didn't want everyone to freak out. However, when I asked the nurse to check their stores, it turns out that there was another robbery. Etomidate was missing from their long-term stores, which are only checked every few weeks when a shipment comes in and when they go for something. This is all recorded, so we have a time frame because the last person to check in was four weeks ago." Morgan said.

"Are the medical records related to the victims?" Reid asked, standing up and heading over to Morgan.

"No. The nurse also said that only employees knew about those stores." Morgan replied, whipping out his cell phone. "I'll call Garcia to tell her to give us a new list without patients but with all the employees in the last four weeks."

Reid nodded his head as he began processing this information. Because the unsub most likely didn't have a large amount of control at work, he probably had a quiet job. This would include receptionists, transcriptionists … what else? The majority of the people in a hospital were important. Unless, of course, this person worked with the administration.

Reid sighed. He hated it when hardly anything in the case added up. Morgan got off his cell phone.

"Kristy, you okay?" Morgan asked her.

Reid had sort of forgotten that she was there. Morgan's question caused him to turn around, and he saw the confused look on her face.

"Well, I was sort of waiting for Reid to explain what Etomidate is." Kristy replied.

Morgan and Reid both shared looks of confusion.

"What do you mean waiting?" Reid asked timidly.

"Well, I have noticed that you often explain things without first asking whether or not a person understands them. This could result from knowing that you are of high intelligence and that you wish to share it. It's almost like you feel bad that you got more knowledge than others, so you try to share it. However, you have never thought of it like this. It's just something that you no longer realize that you do." Kristy replied.

Kristy looked up at their faces. Reid knew what she was looking for; she wanted to know she was right. He sadly admitted to himself that she was. Reid did explain things without considering if the person knew it or not. Usually they didn't, but he now he was so used to it that he didn't even think about it.

The fact that Kristy had said this to him no longer shocked him. Reid saw Morgan's face of disbelief. He was about to explain Kristy's statement when Morgan let out a chuckle.

"She's got you figured out man." Morgan said.

Reid blushed and smiled a little.

"Kristy, etomidate is a quick-acting sedative." Reid explained quietly.

"She sounds like a mini- Reid." Morgan joked.

Reid turned violently toward Morgan to give him a look. However, as he was turning, Reid had felt a bit dizzy. Dizzy enough to spill the cup of ever-present coffee. Morgan gave another sad chuckle.

"This happens a lot. Reid is the team genius and clutz." Morgan explained, helping Reid clean it up with some paper towels he found at the sink in the back of the room. Reid once again blushed.

Kristy gave her reply of a 'hmm'.

"Well, I guess I need to go get some more coffee." Reid said, still blushing.

"I found a waiting room with it. I'll go with you." Morgan offered.

"Okay. Kristy, you'll be all right, won't you?" Reid asked.

"I sure hope so." She replied with a sarcastic smile.

Reid chuckled lightly and headed out with Morgan.

"Man, she's different." Was the first thing that popped out of Morgan's mouth.

"Yeah, but she's really intelligent." Reid replied.

"I figure that out. Profiled her yet?" Morgan asked.

Reid shook his head.

"No? Why not? Usually teenagers are pretty easy." Morgan inquired.

"Yeah, but she's not usual. And yet she is…" Reid trailed off.

"Excuse me?" Morgan asked.

"You see, half the time, she's like that where she is highly intelligent and very perceptive. The other half, she sounds like a normal teenager, you know, she uses slang and bad grammar. And then she'll all of sudden have to think and then she'll sound like she's about ready to graduate from college. I don't know which angle to go from." Reid thought aloud.

"What is she talking about when she sounds like a teenager?" Morgan asked.

"Her home life, things she's used to." Reid replied.

"Well, she said she lived at Lake Cooper. It might be best to keep her towards that track." Morgan rationalized.

Reid and Morgan walked into the waiting room as Morgan's cell phone rang. He answered it as Reid got his coffee. Morgan closed it shut after a minute.

"Whatever you do, you better try to crack her fast. We have another victim." Morgan said tersely.

***

Reid stared in shock at Morgan.

"What do you know?" Reid asked.

"Hotch said her name was Anna Shanken, 15." Morgan replied. "Hotch didn't say anything else. He wants us down there."

Reid nodded and followed Morgan. His mind was racing. A sixth victim in six days. How lucky would this girl be? Suddenly, Reid got an idea.

"Morgan, wait. I have to talk to Kristy." Reid said, heading in the opposite direction.

"Reid, she said it herself, she's fine." Morgan called after him.

"Not that." Reid replied heading down the hall even faster.

He arrived back in Kristy's room a few minutes later and was almost beat by Morgan.

"Kristy, do you know a Anna Shanken?" Reid asked.

"Anna Shanken? Yeah, she's in my class. Why?" Kristy asked. Reid was about to explain, but Kristy beat him to it. "Wait? You mean… he got her too?" She asked with fear again.

Kristy looked ready to cry. Morgan walked over to her.

"Kristy, it's going to be okay." Morgan comforted her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He gave Reid a look asking why he had upset her.

"Kristy, is she related to Lake Cooper?" Reid asked.

Kristy considered this a moment before answering.

"More or less. Her family has always had a summer place out there, but this summer they moved up here and lived in the cabin while they built a house in town. They moved to Lakewood around Christmas break I think. I didn't know who she was or how she was related to the lake until August. She was sort of known, but no too much. Now she's one of us." Kristy replied. "What does this have to with the case?" She asked Reid.

Reid hesitated for a moment. He didn't know if he should tell her. Then he remembered the many, many moments she had proved herself worthy of knowing, all in a few hours.

"We think the man is lashing out at you because you are all from Lake Cooper." He told her.

"Why? What doe she have against the lake?" Kristy asked.

"We don't know." Reid replied.

"Is there anything that people usually don't like about the lake?" Morgan asked.

"Well, if you live on Lake Cooper, you have money somewhere. Lots of people in Lakewood hold that against me." Kristy replied quietly.

"Why do you have to be rich to live on the lake?" Morgan asked.

"Lake Cooper is the third cleanest lake in Eastern South Dakota. It's spring fed, meaning that it never even dried up in the dust bowl. Usually, they are some of the most popular lakes." Kristy stated.

"So, kids tease you or what?" Morgan asked.

"No, not really. They just think I'm a stuck up bitch pretty much." Kristy said nonchalantly. "And they know my life story, know the truth, and yet they don't care." Kristy replied, anger rising in her voice. Reid could tell she was switching over to teenager again.

"The truth?" Reid asked.

Kristy nodded again and got an annoyed look on her face.

"Are you needed to go back to help Anna?" Kristy asked.

Morgan and Reid nodded.

"Leave now. I'll tell my family saga later. Help her." Kristy urged them.

Reid wanted to stay and learn more. However, Kristy was right. Another girl

needed them; she needed to be saved.

Morgan and Reid left quickly and headed down to the station. Already a report on Anna was there.

"Hey." JJ greeted them. "Anna Shenken. 15 years old, a freshman at Lakewood High, currently residing in Lakewood. Never returned home from shopping with her friends."

"With her friends?" Reid asked curiously.

"She dropped them off and called her mom from about 15 minutes away from home. Apparently, all of them needed to be taken out of town somewhere. Her mother got worried when a half hour passed and called the cops when it had been an hour. Her car was found on the side of the road about two miles from her friend's house."

"We're trying to determine if this is related." Hotch said.

"It is. Before we came over, we talked to Kristy. She said that Anna's family owns some land on Lake Cooper." Reid said.

"Why is he going after them because of the lake?" Emily asked. "We've spent all afternoon going over reports, but nothing worth this kind of revenge is turning up." She explained.

"Well, Kristy said that some people hold it against her for being from the lake. She said that you have to have a lot of money to buy a spot." Morgan explained.

"This isn't about money. If it was, he would have contacted us or the family by now. He wants control, and he's taking these girls to get it." Gideon said.

"Well, if he has another girl, where did he go?" Emily asked. "The abandoned building he was using is locked up and has tape and everything all over it. He can't get in."

"Maybe he was prepared." Reid said quietly.

"Like in case this happened?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, he could have a place chosen in case he could no longer use his first choice." Reid said.

"Which would mean he is very paranoid and smart." Gideon stated. "He didn't plan on Kristy getting away, and yet he is still able to keep his pattern going. And the pattern will continue until he is done or we catch him."

The whole team fell silent for a moment as they began to contemplate this.

"What do we do now?" JJ asked.

Hotch looked lost for words. He had no idea.

"Tell the Watertown PD that we're ready for a profile briefing." Gideon commanded Hotch.

"The man we are looking for is between the ages of 30 and 50." Gideon started. "He works in at the local hospital but not in a high position. He is unnoticeable at work, people just walk by. He doesn't have control and he desperately wants it."

"Most likely, he is somewhat fit, but not so much that he stands out for it. He is strong enough to drag a teenage girl who has been drugged a distance." Hotch contributed.

"He is most likely taking his revenge out on these girls because they represent someone or something else. To fulfill his delusions, he must take these girls." Reid added. "Normally, in cases of abduction, random victims are picked because of their looks or because they go somewhere. In this case, they are picked because they're all from Lake Cooper."

"Excuse me, but how will this really help us? Only so many people work at the hospital…" An officer spoke up.

"Even if we find the man who did this, it doesn't mean we'll find the girl." Hotch explained. "As far as we know, the hospital has not reported anything strange, so this man has been able to still kidnap this girl, and keep a façade of normalcy. This means that he is operating close by. We don't know the area as well as you do. You know places that would work to hide a girl and places that wouldn't. We're giving you the profile of this guy so you can get into his head, and apply what you know about the area to this kind of a person."

Every officer looked uncomfortable at what Hotch said. Reid wondered how many times he had seen people in small towns be shocked that someone they know could do this. He had grown tired of this stupid misconception. Anyone can become a killer; many people are just too stupid, too naïve…

'What? No, why am I thinking this?' Reid thought to himself alarmed. One moment, he was considering the case, and then I'm thinking terrible thoughts about people he didn't even know…

'Damn mood swings.' Reid finally concluded. 'This can't get to me. Gideon will know something's up…'

Suddenly, all the officers stood up and left. Reid hadn't been paying attention to the last few minutes of the briefing, so he assumed that it was over. Hotch moved over towards the rest of the team.

"Okay, our best shot is to look into hospital employees and their association with the lake. Garcia sent over a list a people. We need to begin looking into them." Hotch said.

"I want to go out to Lake Cooper. Maybe seeing the lake itself will give us an idea as to why he wants revenge." Gideon said.

"You might want to wait with that." Detective Stanten injected.

"Why?" Morgan asked.

"It'll be dark by the time you get there." He replied. "You won't get anything till tomorrow."

Looking at his watch, Reid hadn't realized that it was already 7:40 p.m. He couldn't believe that it was a mere twelve hours ago that he had woken up from his drug induced stupor.

"We'll go tomorrow. Tonight we need to concentrate on finding the girl." Hotch said.

"Are you sure that all we need is a search party of my men? Shouldn't we be doing something more?" Detective Staten asked.

"The unsub shows that while he is violent to the girls, he never tried to kill them." Gideon said.

"That's a real comfort." Detective Stanten said.

"But it means that she is probably still alive and will be taken care of until we find her." Hotch said.

"But you said at the crime scene that the unsub might get more violent because he's mad…"

"He might. But killing her would be a major jump for him. Don't worry, we're doing everything we can." Hotch replied.

The team then headed back to the conference room where files and papers were stacking up. Everyone sat down wearily and began to look at the different people that qualified for the unsub. After another hour and a half, Hotch asked everyone for their report.

"I got nothing." Reid said. Indeed he didn't. Everyone person he had looked into had a very high job at the Watertown hospital.

"Same here." JJ said. Morgan and Emily nodded in agreement. Hotch sighed heavily.

"Does he have to be associated with the hospital?" Emily asked. "Could someone have gotten the drugs for him?"

"He most likely is. This type of unsub usually works alone." Gideon said. "We'll have to dig deeper."

Reid sighed and looked down in his coffee cup. It was empty and he left to refill it. Unbeknownst to him, Gideon followed him.

"Hey, Reid." Gideon greeted him as Reid started to poor the sustaining liquid.

"Oh, Gideon. Sorry, it's gonna be a late night and I needed a bit of boost." Reid said sheepishly.

"No it's fine. I was just wondering how you were holding up." Gideon asked with concern on his face.

"Oh, um, fine." Reid tried to say as innocently as possible. "I've kept my promise; I didn't miss the plane."

Gideon nodded in agreement but Reid could tell his eyes were far from it. They were filled with worry and it made Reid uncomfortable.

"Look, if you need to you can head over to the hotel early. The search party will end in a few hours. They won't find anything tonight; the unsub is too organized and he won't repeat his mistake." Gideon said.

Reid nodded. The whole team knew this.

"Hotch figured we'd call it a night when we felt we had exhausted every possibility from the hospital. We'll stay until they come back though." Gideon stated.

"Well, if everyone else is working, I should too. I'm fine; I can handle it." Reid assured him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Gideon didn't look 100 satisfied, but he knew Reid's stubbornness. He also trusted Reid and knew that he if it was too much he would say something. He turned to go back to the conference room.

"Wait, Gideon, do you think I could go back to the hospital and talk to Kristy?" Reid suddenly asked.

"Sure. Why?"

"She's our only other lead. The hospital probably won't let me talk to her for long, and the more I can get to know her the better. She said she was going to tell us more about the lake." Reid explained.

"It's worth a try." Gideon replied.

"Did you find her?" was the greeting that awaited Reid as he turned into Kristy's room.

Reid shook his head sadly.

"We have a search party out but they haven't found anything." He explained.

Kristy nodded her head sadly.

"So, what's up?" She asked.

"Well, I came by to talk to you more about the lake and your connection…" Reid started to say.

"Oh yeah. My family saga. Pull up a chair, it's long." She instructed him. Reid did as he was told and she got comfortable on her bed.

"Well, when I was born I was completely normal. I had my mom, dad, my older brother Riley and we later we got a dog. Picture perfect. Then, when I was eight, my mom and dad separated."

"I'm sorry." Reid said sadly. "I know what that's like."

"Your parent's are divorced?"

"Yeah. My dad moved out on us when I was ten." Reid said.

Wait, why was he pouring his guts to her? He had to know her story! Hardly anyone on the team even knew about that…

"I'm sorry. My parents didn't want my and Riley to see it, so they sent us to different friends to spend the night. I came home the next day and my dad was gone but my aunt and uncle were there…" She trailed off for a moment.

"When I was nine, they finalized it and were officially divorced. They were granted joint custody, which they took literally." Kristy added with a smile. "Since I was eight, Monday's have been dad's, Tuesday's mom's, Wednesday's dad's, Thursday's mom's, and the weekend we switch off mom, dad, mom, dad. Of course, that's been subject to change over the years. Now, I actually figured it out. I technically only spend 48 of my time with my dad, and 52 with my mom."

Reid laughed at the last bit as Kristy was too.

"When I was 10, my mother got a 'friend'." Kristy said accenting the last word. "They got engaged the summer before I went to middle school and they married the week after I started. He lived on Lake Cooper, and his house was so big because he was so rich that we decided to move out there. Then, last summer, we put the house up for sale."

"Why?" Reid asked, hoping it would be relevant to the case.

"Because a psycho with an axe was running around threatening us." Kristy replied calmly.

Reid stared at her. Kristy stared back for a few moments, before letting out a hearty laugh.

"Kidding. It was because the house was too much work. The lot was huge, the house was huge, and me and my mother didn't like to clean it. The 15 mile drive also didn't suit us well. Our lives are in Lakewood. I go to school there, our church is there, mom used to work there, my dad lived there. It's my true home." Kristy stated. "We sold it the day my dad moved out to the country after having lived in the same apartment he moved into when they got separated for five and a half years."

Kristy paused for a minute. Reid started to soak this in. The one part of the story that shocked him the most was her schedule. Reid thought he never would have been able to cope with something like that.

"And that brings us to the current day. Now, what about your story?" She asked.

"What? Oh, um, there's not a lot to tell. Besides, we need to figure out how to get that memory back…" Reid stammered.

"Bullshit, but whatever." Kristy said.

Both were silent for a few minutes.

"Wait a second, Kristy, why aren't your parents here?" Reid asked suddenly, wondering why he had not realized this before. He had met Anna's parents, and yet he had never seen Kristy's…

Kristy started to shift her eyes uncomfortably.

"Uh…well…uh…" She started and the sighed. "Okay, straight out, I lied. Mom and dad are both out of town. Mom thinks that Dad came home early a few days from his business trip in Sioux City and Dad think that mom isn't leaving for her spring break trip to Florida for a few more days. I've had three days home alone, they didn't know, and it's been amazing." She added with a satisfied smile.

"You've been alone for three days?" Reid asked again. "Who knew about this?"

"Uh, kind of a lot of people. I was a little excited, so a lot of people heard me talk about it." She said sheepishly.

The unsub left her for three days. That means that he might of picked each girl ahead of time and not out of convenience or Kristy would have been snatched earlier. This might also mean that he has a list of girls that he wants next…

"Kristy, if there were any other girls around your age that are associated with Lake Cooper, who would they be?" Reid asked excitedly.

"More? I don't know." She thought it over a few moments. "I think I know every teenager that lives on the lake. There isn't really another one I can think of. Does this mean that he might be done?" She asked hopefully.

"It might. But we won't know for sure unless he doesn't do it again." Reid said slowly.

Kristy nodded. Both were silent for a few minutes. Reid's thoughts were filled with pictures of the other girls, their mangled bodies. The only injuries found on Kristy were the scratches on her legs from being dragged.

'How lucky will Anna be?' Reid wondered to himself.

"Kristy, how is it that you're still able to smile?" Reid asked suddenly.

This had been bothering him for quite some time. Kristy was joking, and, well, acting quite normal for only 24 hours ago having undergone an attack.

"Like, why am I not acting like the world is ending or something? Why haven't I cried, or broken down, that sort of thing? I don't know. Probably because I don't comprehend what happened." Kristy replied.

"Just because you don't remember doesn't mean you don't comprehend it." Reid said.

"I'm not like that. I can't understand something like that; I know that I was attacked, but I don't remember. If I can't remember my feelings, the sounds, the sights, everything, I won't believe it really happened." Kristy replied quietly.

"Kristy, if you don't want to do this…" Reid said.

"Of course I want to do it. This is the closest we're going to get to finding the creep right?" Kristy asked.

"Well, so far we know he works in a hospital, probably has a low job there, is white, between his 30's and 50's, do you know someone who could be close to that?" Reid asked.

"Do I know a creep who has been to the lake enough to be mad at it between the ages of 30 and 50 that's white? Yeah, plenty of them. Only, we call them campers." Kristy replied. "The lake is a place to play during the day, a great place for the adults to get wasted at by night. I've met so many wasted people it's sad. Then it gets worse when I start meeting wasted kids…" She added with a look of disgust.

Reid gave her a look. He knew that South Dakota rated among the highest for underage drinking problems in the nation. Kristy picked up on it and laguhed

"Don't worry. I'm voted most likely to become a nun which is remarkable because I'm not even Catholic." Kristy replied.

Reid laughed. It felt good; he hadn't really laughed in a while.

"Is it really that bad?" Reid asked.

"The drinking? Oh yeah. I've figured it out. By the time we enter our sophmore year, about 75 of my class will have gotten drunk at one time or another. By our Junior year, about 66 will have had sex. And for the smoking and the drugs, I don't know. They're luckily not as popular." Kristy said.

Reid jumped at drugs. He had been for a long time. Anytime someone else said 'addicted', 'drugs', or anything along that line he jumped, of course thanks to his addiction to drugs that caused such anxiety. Nobody had noticed so far. A nurse entered the room behind Reid so quietly that Reid jumped again when she spoke to him.

"Excuse me sir, but we're going to ask you to leave soon. She needs her rest." The nurse said.

"You know, I'm really fine. I feel great, the scratches will heal, I'm going to be fine." Kristy pleaded.

The nurse gave her a warning look and left.

"I really am fine." Kristy said to Reid.

Reid smiled, thankful that she had changed the subject.

"I'm sure you are Kristy, but doctor's orders." Reid replied standing up.

"They said that I can go home tomorrow. Will I need to stay here to keep pouring my life story to you?"

"I don't know." Reid replied with a smile. "We're going to the lake tomorrow, to see if we figure out what is so important about it."

Kristy nodded.

"Wait, why don't you come with us? We could use you, help us get around." Reid said.

"If I can, sure. I'll help get this guy anyway I can." Kristy replied.

"Then get some rest." Reid said.

He turned and went back to the station. Reid's mind was racing, and yet he was drowsy. His body was tired, and yet he could barely stop jiggling his leg whenever he sat down. He knew it was going to be a long night.

***

Reid returned to the station to find it empty save for a few local cops. Apparently, the search was called at ten, and the team had headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep. Nothing major had been found, and their current lead of Lake Cooper remained to be their only lead.

Reid walked into the room he would be sharing with Morgan a little while later.

"Hey. How'd it go?" Morgan asked.

"Hmm? Oh, fine…" Reid answered.

He wasn't feeling good. His head felt like it was spinning and all he wanted was to sleep.

Morgan looked up.

"You okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah fine." Reid replied.

He threw down his bag and began pulling out the items he needed.

"Just a little tired, that's all…" Reid said.

"We put in a long day." Morgan said. "Did Kristy tell you anything new?"

"Uh, yeah. She said that she's been home alone for three days, which would mean that the unsub picks girls for each day specifically or Kristy would have been snatched days ago." Reid said.

"Which supports…" Morgan inquired.

"That he has a detailed plan, detailed long before he ever did something. He's been planning this for some time and as long as the plan isn't interfered with, he most likely won't do anything more than he already has. Of course, with Cora and Haley, that's not that much of a comfort." Reid said.

"It would also most likely mean that he'll quit sometime soon too. He can't possibly have girls planned for that long." Morgan said.

Reid nodded. "Let's hope." He added.

"Kristy said that she thought that there weren't anymore girls that could be targeted. Although she knows more than us, we have to be prepared in case there's someone she didn't consider…" Reid said.

"Hey, I'm going to go tell this to Gideon. Maybe it'll help him with this master plan for tomorrow." Morgan replied.

"So you don't have a clue as to why we're going either?"

"Well, all I can figure is that Gideon wants to figure out why he chose the lake." Morgan said.

"Can you ask Gideon something else?"

"Sure."

"I asked Kristy if she wanted to come with. I think she might help us." Reid started to say.

"Two geniuses…" Morgan said with a smile.

Reid returned with a look.

"She knows so much and she doesn't realize it. I think she'll really help us. It's a gut feeling. Can you just check to make sure that it's okay?" Reid asked.

"Yeah. Bye." Morgan said as he turned out of the room.

'Why is it so cold in this stupid place?' Reid thought angrily as he went to turn on the heater at full blast after Morgan shut the door. He changed, and almost made it to the bed without collapsing from dizziness.

It felt so good to rest his head on the pillow. However, sleep would not come. His brain would not completely shut off, leaving him to toss and turn until Morgan returned.

"Whoa, it's a sauna in here." He said looking at Reid who was covered under the blankets. "A little cold?" Morgan teased.

"Mmmm." Was Reid's exhaustion filled response. He poked his head out of the blankets to see Morgan turn down the heater.

"Whoa, Reid. Your cheeks are really red…" Morgan said.

'What?' Reid thought. He got up and looked in the mirror. Sure enough, he was flushed. Reid also noticed that he was sweating too, but he felt cold and clammy.

"Whoa, are you sure you're okay?" Morgan asked with a worry filled voice.

"Yes, I'm fine. Don't you trust me?" Reid asked in an agitated voice.

"Of course. But you do look sick. I know JJ has some aspirin and other things if you need them. I can go grab them from her." Morgan offered.

"No!" Reid shot out fast. He had used Dilaudid only a day and half before; it required at least two days to get out of his system and if he took more drugs the results could turn disastrous. "Thanks, but I'll be fine. I just got to go sleep." Reid said hastily.

Reid wandered over to his bed and crawled in. He heard Morgan sigh.

"By the way, Gideon was pleased with everything we said. And he's okay with Kristy coming." Morgan told Reid as he was about to shut off the last light a few minutes later.

Reid hated alienating Morgan. He was his friend, no matter how much he teased him. It wasn't like he had never had friends before; none of them had ever been as good to him as Morgan though.

A little while later Reid heard Morgan snore. Sleep wasn't coming to him at all.

'Dilaudid causes insomnia and drowsiness. How convenient.' Reid thought angrily. 'I haven't slept this bad in so long. Then again, I haven't had to sleep a night without it for almost a month.'

Luckily, sleep did come, fitfully and after many hours.

Morgan shook Reid awake early the next morning. He got ready and they got ready to leave. Reid tried to dress warmly, but the weather was hard to handle.

Down in the lobby, the rest of the team was waiting. They piled into two separate SUV's. Reid rode with Morgan and Hotch.

At the hospital, Kristy stood anxiously waiting. Reid laughed when they arrived because she nearly ran them over to get out.

"Kristy, hold up." Reid instructed her. "These are the other two members of the team, Agents Hotchner and Gideon."

Hotch and Gideon shook her hand and then went off to talk to a doctor. They wanted to clarify that it was all right to take her.

"Uh, Ms. Jaraeu, Ms. Prentiss, I am sorry about the attitude I gave you yesterday." Kristy apologized.

"Don't worry about it. And call me JJ. Ms, Jaraeu makes me sound old." JJ said.

"Okay. Anything you want me to call you?" Kristy asked turning to Emily.

"Uh, Emily or Prentiss is fine." Emily said.

"And use Morgan for me." Morgan chipped in.

Kristy nodded. Hotch and Gideon returned.

"Kristy, it's okay to take you as long as your parents have cleared it. According to the nurse you talked to your mother. Did she clear it?" Hotch asked sternly.

"Yes. She said it's all right for me to leave the hospital." Kristy replied.

"All right, let's go." Gideon said.

Kristy was very talkative during the ride.

"What are we looking for?" She asked as the pulled out of Watertown.

"Something as to why he uses the lake as the connection." Hotch explained uneasily.

Reid knew that Hotch wasn't sold on the idea of involving a victim so much in an investigation. However, Kristy so far was their only lead which is why Reid wanted her along. Most likely, the unsub mentioned about the lake as he was taking her and that could be the trigger.

Of course, Reid didn't tell Kristy this. He didn't want her to actively search for something from the lake to be the trigger, and he was also afraid that if something from the lake was the trigger that she would hate it because of that.

"Well, if he owns a house, then you're kind of screwed on that. The lake's not exactly big; he can live fairly close to all of us." Kristy replied.

"Yes, but because we haven't found anyone who owns lake property he most likely doesn't. How much public access is there on the lake?" Hotch inquired turning onto the interstate.

"There's a public boat launch and there's the state park." Kristy replied.

"Anything else?" Morgan asked.

"Well, there's a bar and a restaurant, but I don't think he'd be pissed over something with that. What does drive someone to do something like this all of a sudden?" Kristy asked.

"Every unsub has a different stresser or something that makes them explode and take their revenge. Because the unsub appears older, we think it was something in his past." Reid explained.

"So this could have happened years ago, but he's mad now?" Kristy asked with her eyebrows way up.

"Yeah." Reid replied.

"Is there something that you would want revenge for because of the lake?" Hotch asked.

Kristy sighed.

"I don't know. If it's about a power struggle, then I would be mad about accidents. But I suppose if I pissed at the lake, it wouldn't be boating accidents. Those are caused by bad drivers. That leaves accidents from this time of year." Kristy replied.

"You mean with the ice?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah. Some people are real idiots and go out on it with vehicles and stuff this time of year." Kristy said.

"I don't think I would ever go out on a frozen lake with a vehicle." Reid replied.

Morgan and Kristy laughed.

"You only need four inches of ice to support a vehicle." Kristy said.

"Four? Yeah right." Reid replied.

"You're a genius, you should know that." Morgan said.

"I know that four inches of ice can support quite a lot of weight but not quite that much." Reid said. He stared out the window and looked at the mountains of snow everywhere. "Did you know that the Eskimos of Alaska had over 70 different words for snow?"

Morgan smiled, and even Hotch let out a rare little smile. They had heard Reid spout off a random, useless fact in a long time and it was nice.

"Kristy, the directions the cop gave us were wrong I think. He said to take the next exit." Hotch began.

"That's right." Kristy said.

"Well, why are we still on the road then?" Hotch inquired.

Kristy laughed.

"Agent Hotchner, you still have about 10 more miles until we hit that exit." She replied.

Everyone except her got a strange look on their face.

"Is it normal to go this far without exits?" Morgan asked her.

"No, not even in South Dakota. There's just no where to go between Watertown and the Lakewood exit. After that, I think it's every few miles. Wait no, the road from Brookings to Sioux Falls has some pretty big stretches." Kristy explained.

Morgan and Hotch looked extremely mystified by this bit of culture.

"This is South Dakota. We do things a little bit different." Kristy said with a smile.

The next part of the trip passed in silence. Reid continued to stare out his window. The prairie was beautiful; Reid had never seen anything quite like it. In his four years at the BAU, he had been to most of the major cities in the US and lots of small towns in lots of states, but they had hardly been to such a place.

Hotch made it off the interstate and turned towards Lakewood. The closer they got to Lakewood, the more Kristy began to point out special features of the land. She knew many of the farms and places around them.

They approached Lakewood but drove on by to make it to Lake Cooper. As it turned out, there actually was a Lake Wood, which is how the town derived its name. They drove on past that too as they more into the South Dakota countryside.

Out here, Reid could see the effects of the recent snowstorm. The roads were far more dangerous and Hotch had to really slow down in order to make it through. Reid was quite happy when they finally approached the lake and Kristy began to instruct Hotch to the public access.

The other vehicle had gone to the park, although they expected little there because someone would have been reported for being at the park in the winter.

"It's really an interesting feeling. The same place that I helped little kids fish last summer is possibly the same spot where a crazy guy came to contemplate harming teenage girls." Kristy said with a wry smile. Reid replied with the same wry smile.

They were walking along the path that connected the dock to the road. Seeing nothing, Reid returned back to Hotch and Morgan who had checked the surrounding area while Kristy stayed behind.

"Anything?" Hotch asked when they returned.

Reid shook his head. He began to look down at the ground as Morgan and Hotch discussed different aspects to death.

"Do these tracks look similar to you?" Reid asked suddenly.

Morgan and Hotch looked down. Sure enough, there was only one set of tracks that covered the ground and looked very similar.

"These look like a lot of times to drive through here." Morgan said.

"It snowed, what Thursday?" Reid asked.

"Yeah, started Thursday night and ended Friday." Hotch said.

"Well, since it's Tuesday, then these tracks are all from the last four days." Reid said.

"I count at least three distinct paths." Hotch said. "Maybe four."

"Which means he came here everyday." Morgan said.

"I'll call the Watertown PD to see if they can send some CSI's. Maybe we can a vehicle." Hotch said. He whipped out his cell, but his face fell into disgust. "No service."

"Hey, Kristy" Reid called to which she turned around, "how do you get cell service?"

Kristy looked around.

"Climb up that hill and you might get a signal." She said walking towards them.

Hotch sighed and turned.

"What'd you find?" Kristy asked anxiously when she returned.

"Tire tracks. A lot of them." Morgan said.

"These ones?" Kristy asked.

"Yeah." Morgan answered.

Kristy started to follow them. Reid had assumed that they would have stopped once they met the ice but it appeared they didn't.

"They go on for a ways. There was somewhere specific he was going." Kristy said.

She took off onto the lake.

"Kristy!" Reid called following her. "It's 33 degrees outside; you need to get off the ice!"

Morgan took after Reid. Kristy was far ahead but she wasn't moving fast. They quickly caught up with her.

"Reid, you of all people should know that water is the slowest to cool down and warm up. The ice is at least 5 inches thick; we could drive out here if we wanted to." Kristy replied. "We're fine."

"You do realize that we're working a case that could involve an accident involving ice?" Morgan asked uneasily.

"Dramatic irony." Kristy replied.

She started to pick up her pace which was a problem for Reid. His feet didn't like it, and he was slipping a lot. Kristy suddenly stopped so suddenly that Reid did fall. He quickly recovered.

"This is where it happened. The tracks stop here." Kristy said.

They were almost in the middle of the lake. Reid could see almost everything.

"This is an ideal ice fishing spot." Kristy said.

"Supports the ice fishing accident theory." Reid said.

"So we've narrowed it down to a guy who is upset over an ice fishing accident and works in a hospital?" Morgan asked.

Reid nodded and sighed. Morgan and Reid tried to find something else specific about this spot but nothing turned up.

They headed back to the shore where Hotch was waiting. The others had nothing which didn't surprise them. Hotch also talked to the Watertown PD and they said that snow wouldn't be able to give them much. Realizing that there was not much left to find, the team began to head back to Watertown.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was spent going through files upon files.

Occasionally, Reid took breaks to add more Kristy's profile. He was beginning to have ideas about what would trigger a flashback and he had been dropping hints into conversations, but so far nothing had happened.

He thoroughly enjoyed taking these breaks. Kristy was very honest with him. It was something that Reid hadn't felt lately.

'Not that I deserve it.' He thought to himself every time he felt angered by this. However, her honesty helped Reid feel more comfortable around her, and he even found himself telling her things that he didn't tell most people.

The search parties had gone out for Ana again but they had gotten nothing. The unsub would have planted her in a secure building, most likely more secure than the last one. This led the BAU team to believe that the only way to find the place was to find the unsub.

"Any luck?" Kristy asked Reid as he returned again mid afternoon.

Reid shook his head sadly. Kristy sighed.

"Kristy, if you want to leave or something…" Reid began.

"No. I want to stay here and help." Kristy said with force.

"Kristy, you do understand that there's not a 100 that this will even work, right?" Reid asked.

"I understand. I won't let that happen though." Kristy said.

Her stubbornness indicated that her trigger was something she thought about often. So far, she had mentioned her friends and her grades. Reid kept the conversation heading towards that direction until Morgan interrupted a little while later.

"Hey, Reid, can I talk to you for a sec?" Morgan asked tensely.

Worry was written all over Morgan's face. Reid had no clue what Morgan was going to say but Reid's gut had a feeling. Reid stood up to leave.

"He got another girl. She's only 12." Morgan whispered.

"Dammit. How?" Reid asked.

"Who did he get?" Kristy asked.

Morgan and Reid stared at her flabbergasted.

"Could you hear us?" Morgan asked.

"No. Who did he get?" Kristy asked again. She stared at Morgan coldly; she wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Sara Shenken." Morgan replied.

"Wait…" Reid began but Kristy beat him to it.

"That's Ana's sister!" Kristy yelled. "How? How on Earth could he have gotten her? Surely she's been watched all day."

"Apparently not. Look, we have to go." Morgan replied.

"Kristy, don't worry, I'll fill you in later." Reid promised. "Her parents wouldn't have let her go alone, her sister is missing. Something's not right." Reid said as they entered the hallway.

"Her parents didn't want her in the middle of the turmoil at home. They sent her to her aunt's house. She was outside playing basketball. Her aunt was in the shower and didn't notice." Morgan said. "What I don't get is why Kristy didn't think she could be a victim."

"I told Kristy that they probably wouldn't be younger than Rachael. Sara's 12." Reid said.

"She knew that?" Morgan asked.

"She knows the birth date of every kid in her grade." Reid replied.

It was true; it was one of Kristy's many quirks.

"What's going on?" Reid asked.

"Well, now they think it's best to inform the media. In an hour, JJ will hold a press conference. He's taken two girls with the FBI preset; this guy is very motivated and very organized. He's too dangerous to not let others know." Morgan said.

Reid nodded in agreement.

"Until then, they're doubling the search parties. We've checked all the other families to see if they're other children would be targeted. All of the other girls had siblings but all of them were no longer living at home or didn't fit the profile. Until then, all we can do is what we've been doing." Morgan said.

They walked back into the conference room. Emily and Hotch were still pouring over files and Gideon was posting their information about Sara. JJ was gone; Reid assumed she was getting ready.

Reid looked around at all of the evidence surrounding him.

"Hotch, how many tracks did you think you found?" Reid asked.

"Four possibly. Why?" Hotch asked.

"Well, if this is the same guy, then he would have gone back." Reid said. "How long has she been missing?"

"45 minutes." Emily said.

"Then if he goes before, he would have already gone. But if he makes a pit stop on the way to the new site…" Reid said.

"We're heading out." Hotch said as he picked up on Reid's thinking.

"Reid stay here with JJ. Call the Lakewood police and send them ahead of us. If he goes after he gets the girl, they'll catch him before we do. And work with Kristy. She's a lot closer than any of these files." Gideon ordered as he, Hotch, Emily, and Morgan walked out.

Reid did as he was told. He was about to walk back to the room where Kristy was staying when he met up with JJ. She definitely looked different; her hair was done and makeup had been applied all over her face. Reid didn't think she needed it; he always thought she was beautiful.

"Hey." He greeted her.

"Hey Spence. What's going on? No one's around." She asked.

"They went back to Lake Cooper. They wanted to see if the unsub left tracks again." Reid replied. "How are things going?"

"Okay. We have to wait a while; apparently, the 'local' news stations are over an hour away." JJ said with a laugh.

Reid laughed.

"Agents?" A local cop called behind JJ. "Where is the press conference taking place?"

She turned around to see what the cop wanted. Reid learned very painfully that JJ had also changed her shoes to some very thin, very sharp high heels. Her left foot planted down directly between his bog toe and second toe on his right foot. Now, this should have been considered lucky considering that the heel did not actually hit his foot.

However, when that area is used to insert a needle full of a highly addictive opiate where no one would notice, shoving a heel in between there is very painful. So painful, Reid had to gasp.

"Spence? What happened?" JJ asked after she had answered the cop's question about the press conference. She looked down at her foot and saw where it had landed. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, are you all right? Did I get you bad?" JJ stammered as she quickly stepped off his foot.

"I'm fine." Reid said, desperately hiding the lie. His foot felt like it was on fire. "I have to go talk to Kristy…" He said, getting away from JJ as fast as he could.

"Okay." She said quietly.

Reid limped into the little interrogation room behind him and sat down. She looked up.

"Any news?" Kristy asked.

Reid shook his head. Luckily, the pain was diminishing and he could think again.

"Kristy, was there any other reason why you didn't choose Sara?" Reid asked trying to make everything appear normal.

"Well, the age thing. And because I thought this guy would take two girls from one family." Kristy said sadly. "I was wrong. And now I'm guilty."

"What? You couldn't have predicted that this was going to happen." Reid said quickly.

"I could have told you to watch her. Maybe you would have caught him in the act, and you would have gotten him, and you could have found Ana. Now their parents have lost their two children. What if he does something to them?" Kristy asked.

"Kristy, you are not responsible for this. The only person who is, is the person who did this. You've got a pretty strong alibi; you're not exactly a suspect." Reid replied.

Kristy laughed. Then she began to cry.

"I'm sorry. I'm just really worried. I've racked my brain; I can't think of any other teenage, pre-teen, or any other girl associated with the lake. I just want to get this sick bastard." Kristy said wiping her tears.

Reid was selfishly glad she had gotten over that; comforting the victims hadn't ever been his strong suit. Kristy pulled herself together and they tried again. Once again, the memory would not present itself. Kristy had told Reid her darkest secrets, her greatest moments, and almost everything in between. Nothing would trigger it.

As scheduled, the press conference took place an hour later. Shortly after, Hotch called to say that they had been too late. Now, all of the tracks had been cleared, including the previous ones. While this meant that the unsub had indeed been there because the plows hadn't, it also meant that they didn't have a starting point.

The day carried on the same as it had before; the search parties found nothing, the BAU had gone over every ice fishing accident in the last 10-30 years ago and found no leads. Reid talked more and more to Kristy. The memory didn't come.

The only good news they received was that they would be able to talk to Officer Matt Heiden tomorrow morning. He thought he would be able to slip away long enough.

Kristy had left at 9:30 because she couldn't drive after 10:00 p.m. Or as she put it, she wasn't supposed to. Reid could hardly believe that she even had a driver's license. Apparently in South Dakota, you only had to be 14 years old to start applying.

Reid was walking back to the conference room when he met Morgan on the way.

"Hey. Hotch called it a night." Morgan said.

"What? It's still really early." Reid said.

"Yeah, but there's nothing more we can do. The search parties haven't gotten a thing. We've looked into every person at that hospital. Garcia's run background checks on every database she can get her hands on. And we still have nothing." Morgan said, obviously exasperated.

"So we're waiting on the cop?" Reid asked as he and Morgan began to walk out.

"Yeah. Who knows, maybe he'll give us the unsub." Morgan said with a laugh.

Reid laughed too. They were silent for a few minutes. Reid was thankful that he was done for tonight. He was letting the symptoms that had plagued him all day shine through now that it was only him and Morgan. The fatigue, nausea, and other side effects were all floating through him.

"So, you actually gonna sleep tonight?" Morgan asked later as he climbed into bed.

"Huh?" Reid asked.

"I heard you last night. Tossing and turning like crazy." Morgan said.

"I heard you last night too. Only you were snoring like crazy." Reid recovered.

Thankfully, Morgan took it as a joke and laughed.

"Least I slept. Reid, you're not having nightmares, are you?"

'Every night.'

"No."

"Sure? You've looked really tired lately."

"Yeah. I just haven't been feeling too great lately. Just a bug, it'll pass in a few days." Reid lied efficiently.

Morgan bought it. Or at least, he quieted down.

They walked out of the building and got into an SUV. Reid sat down and began to look forward to his night of sleep. However, after a few minutes, he came to the realization that he wasn't going to go to sleep again tonight.

'I can't keep doing this.' He thought desperately to himself. He began to form an idea.

"Welcome to Walgreens. How may I help you?"

This was how the pharmacist greeted him. Reid was very lucky. He was lucky that Morgan and Gideon had believed him when he asked to go to the pharmacy quick to get something for his imaginary bug. He was lucky that they had decided to wait in the car. He was lucky that pharmacies like Walgreens were open until 10 and it happened to be 9:45. He was also lucky that the pharmacist was young. Young enough to be fooled. Just young enough.

"Hi. My name is Dr. Spencer Reid. I'm with the FBI." Reid said showing his badge, stressing 'Dr.' and 'FBI'.

"Wow, uh, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Well, I know this is a strange request, but I need to get some medications." Reid said.

"Well, just give me the prescription and I'll get them." The pharmacist replied with a "I'm-here-to-help" smile.

"Well, uh, you see that's where I have a problem. I don't have a prescription." Reid replied as the pharmacist raised his eyebrows. "We're in town working on a local case and we're sort of in a jam. I know that you're not supposed to give them to me unless I have a prescription, but I really need them."

"Well, if you need me to get them for you, then you need a prescription." The pharmacist replied shyly.

'Damn' Reid thought. "Uh, well then, thank you, I guess." He turned around and began to walk away.

"Wait! You said you were a doctor, right?" the pharmacist asked.

'Yes!'

"Uh, yes." Reid answered confused.

"And you're with the FBI?" he asked.

'Yes!'

"Yes." Reid replied more confidently.

"Well, what exactly do you need?" The pharmacist asked, breaking.

"Dilaudid in the liquid form." Reid said quietly.

The pharmacist looked very pensive for a few moments. Then he looked up.

"I think I can do that." The pharmacist replied.

A half hour later, Reid crumpled into his hotel bed. Once again, he had been very lucky. He was lucky that Morgan and Gideon hadn't noticed a thing. He was lucky that the skin on his foot had not been that sorely hurt by JJ's shoe. But most of all, Reid felt lucky because he had finally fulfilled his craving.

'In the sickest way possible.' He thought wryly to himself as he drifted off into his much anticipated sleep.

***

Reid awoke the next morning groggy but much more rested than the night before. Morgan was almost ready to head out. It had been decided that Hotch and he were the best to handle talking to the cop, being the most experienced as cops.

Reid took his place at the police station an hour later, looking over the same files, same people again.

"Officer Matt Heiden?" Morgan questioned the man that approached him.

As a precaution to the case he was working, Hotch and Morgan had to meet Heiden near the apartment where he was currently staying. They had dressed down to street clothes and were given a photo to recognize him by, but that hadn't proved to be the most useful. Heiden had skillfully disguised himself to look just like he belonged on the streets and nothing like his cop self.

"Hey, out here, just Hide. That's what I'm called by the thugs. If you must, you can call me Matt, but no officer." He replied hastily.

"What kind of case you working?" Hotch inquired.

"Possibly a huge bust. There's a gang that's getting out of control that's also really into their drugs. Marijuana mostly, some heavier stuff too. A leak came forward in exchange for protection, and they brought me in. They could easily make me look the part, so they did. I've made small appearances over the last few months, but they haven't shown me any drugs. They've been building the trust slowly, considering they think I'm just a kid. Tonight, there's a chance I'll see something." Heiden replied. "What was so important you needed to see me? If this blows my cover…"

"Calm down." Morgan commanded. "You still look the part, and we don't look like cops either. You'll be fine."

"The other night, you were picking up a shift for the local PD, right?" Hotch asked.

"Yea. Nothing more I could do until I went out. I was too pumped on adrenaline to finally get these guys, and I needed to calm down." Heiden replied. "They sent me out to cover the streets."

"What do you remember about the call to the Subway?" Hotch asked.

"With that girl? She was raped, wasn't she?" Heiden asked.

Morgan and Hotch exchanged a look.

"No. She was drugged, kidnapped, and left in the building-" Morgan started.

"And then she went over to the Subway. I responded to the call alone. I talked to the employee at Subway. According to her, the girl walked in with her clothes torn, half out of it, and pretty shook up. I assumed that she had been raped, and she had been drugged. When I went over to her, she was fairly out of it. And around here, our units all sort of blend together at times. I know what GHB looks like." Heiden replied hastily.

"Did you ask her what happened?" Morgan asked.

"Yea, but she had no clue. Like I said, I assumed it was a rape. I checked out the building that she said she woke up in. I walked in, and saw evidence everywhere. I figured it would be an easy case, find the DNA and get the guy. The scene was messy and there were hairs and fingerprints everywhere; I figured he would probably already be in the system. I called my CSI buddy, and he came over. He got what I needed as I talked to the girl. I tried to get her to ID the guy by starting off with the local sex offender registry. When he gave me a ton of DNA samples, I left to get it tested." Heiden replied.

"You got DNA?" Hotch asked shocked.

"Yeah."

"Then why don't we have it?" Morgan asked.

"Because it never made it to the lab. I was at the scene later than I expected, and I had to get ready. I had to move out at 6 to meet the informant so we could work on everything we needed. Another friend of mine came over to finish the scene. I took the DNA because I had figured that I could drop it off lab. It turned out I couldn't." Heiden replied shamefully.

"So why didn't you CSI friend say anything about the DNA?" Hotch asked.

This didn't make sense; two other cops knew about the DNA but no one else did. Surely they would have gotten it from Heiden, there wasn't really even a good reason for him to have it in the first place. Heiden sighed.

"Because all I asked him to do was process the scene. After he was done, he headed home." Heiden said. "But, why are you guys coming after me? Surely that girl is okay."

"She is. The others aren't." Hotch replied curtly.

"Others?" Heiden asked.

"Matt, she wasn't raped. She was abducted, and she would have been beaten severely if she hadn't gotten away. The man who did this to her, he also took four other girls before her. Two are still in comas, and the other two have woken up as of this morning. Neither can remember a thing from the last few days. He's taken two more girls since, and we don't know where they are. They're probably being beaten now. And if he keeps up at this pattern, he could take another girl today." Hotch said.

"Oh my gosh." Heiden said shocked. "I had no idea. I didn't hear anything, I just processed the scene with my buddy. I thought it would so easy; just a simple rape."

Morgan and Hotch nodded.

"So what did you tell the other cop who came to finish the scene?" Hotch asked.

"Just that I thought it was possibly a rape. I didn't say anything about the DNA. My main priority was to get out of there on time. I figured if it was just a rape, a few days wouldn't hurt it. Didn't think too much about it, I guess. Goll, I was so stupid." Heiden said.

"Heiden, do you still have the DNA?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah. It's in my car, which is parked at the station." Heiden replied.

Morgan jumped on his cell phone. Heiden turned to Hotch.

"You said you guys were cops? You don't look local." Heiden asked.

"We're not. We're from the FBI, Behavioral Analysis Unit." Hotch replied quietly as he was looked around. He was pissed about the cop's stupidity, but he knew he shouldn't endanger him when he was undercover. "Why didn't you check the building right away?"

"Didn't think I'd have to. I figured it was empty." Heiden replied growing more embarrassed by the moment.

"They're sending out someone to get it." Morgan stated as he joined them again.

Heiden looked extremely uncomfortable. He was beginning to realize just how much damage this could do to him.

"Listen, I think it's best that you guys leave now before someone sees something." Heiden said suddenly.

"First, is there anything else that we need to know?" Hotch asked in his sternest voice possible.

"No. I swear. That's all that happened." Heiden said.

"Hide, who're these guys?" Someone suddenly called from behind.

A thug walked towards them.

"It's okay Zack. They're cops." Heiden replied quietly. "This is Zack; he's our informant."

Hotch and Morgan nodded their hellos.

"Hey man, we gotta go." Zack replied.

"Okay." Heiden said to Zack. He turned to Hotch and Morgan. "I'm really, really sorry. I know it's not much comfort."

"No, it's not." Hotch replied walking back to the car.

"What have we got?" Hotch asked as he stormed into the conference room.

"The DNA we found is being processed now. We sent some to Garcia just incase we need to run it through a bigger database." JJ replied.

"Hotch, how did we get DNA?" Emily asked.

"Long story. Essentially, the cop that's going to become famous for a major drug bust thought he could solve two cases at once. Meant to get the DNA here, but never made it." Morgan replied.

Reid was mad that there was DNA. If there was and they found the guy off something so simple, there never really had been any use for the BAU being there in the first place. All that hard work, all that effort, wasted.

'And what happened last night.' Reid thought.

Now that he had finally been able to sleep, he realized what he had convinced the pharmacist to do. He had used his technical status as a doctor and the fact that he was a federal agent to get him to do something, well, illegal. Reid's conscience could hardly take the moral tug of his addiction.

Then again, if the DNA brought back someone, the team could go back home. Then Reid wouldn't have to worry about it.

At that moment, a young cop came to the door.

"Excuse me, agent Reid? There's a girl here to see you." He said.

"Go Reid!" Morgan said playfully, causing Reid to turn bright red.

"She said that she's working with you on the case." The officer said.

"It's Kristy." Reid simply said. "Should I tell her we found DNA?" Reid asked Gideon.

"You can tell her. She'll want to know. If we get a match, then it's best that she knows right away. If we don't, we'll have to keep going for the memory." Gideon replied.

"You got DNA? So, it's almost over?" Kristy asked excitedly. Reid was with her in the interrogation room that they were using yesterday.

"Well, we need to get a match, and if we do then, yes, it is all over." Reid replied. He couldn't help but smile. It was as it Kristy's smile was contagious. She was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Is there a high chance of that?" Kristy replied.

"All depends. It'll take a while before they find out here if they got a match. We sent a sample to an analyst back in Quantico, and she has a larger database in case he did something in a different place. We'll have to wait until then." Reid explained.

Kristy nodded. Suddenly, the smile disappeared from her face, and her eyes became wide.

"Reid, what if he gets someone else before then? What if he takes another girl?"

Reid became very uncomfortable.

"Well, if we find who he is, we can usually find where he's taken them pretty quickly. So far, we don't think that he will take anyone else, but we're planning like he is going too just in case. We've checked all of the families of the other girls and we haven't found any other girls at risk. Do you think you know any other girls?" Reid asked.

Kristy shook her head. "I looked at the Lake Cooper directory last night, but every girl that could possibly be the next victim wouldn't have been at the lake recently. They all live in bigger cities and don't come out for any other reason than to party in the summer." Kristy replied. "And if there isn't a match…?"

"Well, then we have a sample to compare a suspect's to." Reid replied.

"So, we should probably work on the memory?" Kristy asked.

"Yeah." Reid replied.

Kristy flopped down in her chair and began to take off her shoes, which Reid stared at. She looked up and laughed.

"Might as well be comfortable." She replied.

Reid smiled and sat down.

"So, where exactly in my life story did we leave off?" Kristy asked sarcastically.

"Kristy, what do you want to be when you get older?" Reid asked. It was something that they had touched on, but Reid wanted to really get to understand it.

"Well, this year it's middle school social studies teacher." Kristy replied.

"Why?" Reid asked.

"Because social studies is not taught the way it should be and I want to change that. Social Studies is the study of human behavior, but in schools today it's ancient history or geography. However, we can apply social studies to these subjects. I mean, instead of teaching that King Henry VIII had an affair with Anne Boleyn, we should teach why it happened and its impact. His drive was that he wanted a son, in other words greed. While this is natural to all human beings, many people don't know its impact on religion today. King Henry VIII helped create the separation from the Catholic church, something that happened before Martin Luther. He needed to get away from the church so he could divorce his wife. Now, Martin Luther was an important player later on." Kristy replied.

Reid was staring, again. Kristy smiled.

"Social studies should be the study of human behavior. If people understand human behavior, they have great power. One problem we have today is not understanding others. I want these students to learn how to do that and I can do that through history. Winston Churchill said "The farther back we look, the farther ahead we see" and that's not accepted too much these days. I want to change that. Does that answer your question?" She finished.

"I think so." Reid joked.

It was so strange to hear Kristy talk about such things. This was often how Reid felt about why he wanted to join the BAU. He wanted to understand people and use that to help others. It was hard in these cases when he bad guy kept winning to remember that.

Kristy sighed.

"What?" Reid asked surprised.

"It's just so strange to pour your heart to someone. My mother doesn't even know that I want to be a teacher. She thinks I need to go to Harvard Law or some Ivy League school and become a lawyer." Kristy replied. "Here, you know all of my secrets. I have to keep reminding myself not to lie. You're going to be gone when this all over."

"Lie?" Reid asked nervously. "Kristy, have you lied to me at all?"

"No." Kristy said indiginatly.

"Have you recently?" Reid asked.

"What's recently?" Kristy asked quietly.

"Since Sunday."

"Uh, to my mother." Kristy replied.

"How often do you lie to your mother?" Reid asked slowly.

Kristy got a very big look of shame on her face.

"Please remember that I am a teenager, a very private teenager with a mother who can be quite nosy." Kristy said hastily.

"How often?" Reid repeated.

Kristy sighed.

"Damn near every other thing I tell her." She replied. "Why?"

Reid sighed. "This might cause complications to your memory. If the trigger is a thought, then a lie could have screwed your brain up and tricked it into thinking that the lie is the truth. Were you thinking about any lies that night?"

The shame intensified.

"Yeah. Me and my friend rented an R-rated movie that my mother would never approve of. I was trying to think of some other title to tell her." Kristy replied.

"Is that it?" Reid asked.

"You're going to have to give me some time on that one. I try to be a good person, but I'm pretty terrible when it comes to lying." Kristy replied.

After giving her some time to think, they continued their conversation for a while longer. It was obvious to Reid that she was getting tired of this, especially now that they were moving onto such things as her lies. He just prayed that her brain hadn't manifested something to be the trigger, because then there might be something that Kristy wouldn't think of because it wouldn't make sense.

He was surprised it had taken this long; she should have remembered at least something by now. Usually, the trigger was just a word, and as long as she said it, the memory should come back. Their topics had been so diverse Reid was amazed that it hadn't come back yet.

'Then again, the English language has over one million words.' Reid reminded himself.

Reid walked into the conference room a little while later. Everyone was tense. There was not a lot to do. The DNA test came back negative for both the local database and Garcia. Now, everyone was waiting for his next move, because nothing else was working. Search parties turned up nothing. It was incredibly frustrating.

"Anything?" Hotch asked.

Reid shook his head sadly. "Anything here?"

"No. There haven't been any reported missing girls." He replied.

"Yet." Reid said cynically.

However, Reid turned out to be wrong, something he was not used to. The day passed slowly and quietly. Kristy left in the early evening after a long day. The rest of the team had tried to find a connection between the hospital personnel and Lake Cooper, but the same nothingness turned up. At 9:00, no girls had been reported missing.

"I don't get it." Morgan finally said. "He quit. He wasn't scared in the last two days, but now he quit."

"Well, most likely each girl was picked ahead of time. Maybe his plan was to stop there." Hotch said.

"But why stop? Why only these girls?" JJ asked.

"Well, Kristy did think that there weren't any other girls that would fit the profile. Maybe these were the only people he wanted." Reid said.

"No." Gideon said. "It's not about the number of girls fitting the reason. The reason fit the girls."

"So, if this guy had his reason for revenge, picked these girls, then there could be something significant about the number." Emily said.

"Well, there were seven girls." Hotch said.

"Seven is often considered a lucky and important number. There are seven days in a week, it's often used in religious works such as the Bible." Reid said, almost going into a rant.

"This is for revenge. Seven means something in the accident. Have Garcia check into accidents with high incidences of seven." Gideon ordered.

Morgan grabbed his cell and left.

"Do you realize what time it is?" Garcia answered Morgan's call. He smiled.

"Well, here it's nine thirty." He replied.

"And here, it's ten thirty. I was going to go to bed early for once." She replied.

"Oh, come on mama. I need you to do one more search for me." Morgan teased.

"You owe me when you get back. And please make it soon, the office is lonely without your presence." Garcia replied.

"Yes Ma'am. Can you do a search of all the ice fishing accidents involving the number seven?" Morgan asked.

"Okay that is really random." Garcia said.

"Yes, but it still needs to be done." Morgan retorted.

"Do not undermine my amazing abilities. I'm already on it, and there we go." Garcia said, finishing the last part slowly. "I went for two or more sevens, and I have found, well, would you look at that?"

"Little hard Garcia. We're a few thousand miles apart." Morgan replied.

"I found seven." Garcia replied with a laugh.

"Great. Send over the list please." Morgan said.

"Just so you know, the hot tub is still waiting." Garcia replied evilly.

"Don't tempt me woman. We still have to get the guy." Morgan replied.

"Oh, all right. But don't forget, you still owe me!" Garcia retorted as they hung up.

"Okay, Garcia is sending over a list." Morgan stated as he walked back into the room.

"How many did we narrow it down to?" Hotch asked.

"Seven." Morgan said as Garcia's fax printed out.

Hotch pulled the list out.

"We've already looked into all of these cases. We didn't find anything." Hotch said.

"Then we're missing something." Gideon said.

"What is there? All he needs is a connection to the lake and has to work at the hospital." Emily said.

"He maybe could have had an accomplice." Morgan ventured.

"Or maybe he works higher in authority that we thought." Reid chipped in.

"Or he might not have something specifically with an ice fishing incident." JJ stated.

"No. We weren't wrong about the profile." Gideon said over their entire conversation. "This kind of person does work alone, he has a menial job, and he is specific, very specific about his revenge, why he does it, and everything about it. The answer is in the seven cases. This man is smart enough that we have to look as deep as possible." Gideon said. "He's quit for a reason. Now we need to determine why he started."

"Gideon, we won't be able to do that tonight." Hotch reasoned with him.

"Then we do tomorrow." Gideon said walking out of the room.

Hotch sighed.

"We're close. We're almost done." He reassured everyone else as they got ready to leave.

Reid went back to his routine that night with the Dilaudid. He hated how he needed it on a case, but he couldn't handle it.

'Maybe I should tell Gideon.' Reid thought as he waited for Morgan to get out of the bathroom so he could enter and fulfill his need. 'No, what good will it do? I can still function. If the team can't notice, then I must be fine. There's no need for them to know.' Reid repeated to himself.

Morgan came out of the bathroom to which Reid went in.

His mind began to float back to memories again as he went through his routine morning. This time it went back to Ethan. Ethan had said that if he knew, his team would. But they hadn't. They didn't expect it. They wouldn't believe it. They would be hurt. Reid didn't want to burden them.

With that going through his brain, he shoved the depressor down and let the drug back into his body.

***

The next morning was met with little anticipation from the team. The seven cases that they were going through for the umpteenth time were not turning up anything. Everyone was getting snippy and restless, which suited Reid just fine because then no one would notice that he moody for a different reason.

"Let's face it Hotch. The answer is not here." Morgan finally said at their lunch break.

"There has to be something." Hotch said tiredly.

"If there is, it must be invisible." Emily replied.

"Are we sure there aren't any other links between the girls?" Hotch asked, looking right at Reid.

"Not that we can find. The all belong to different groups, have different pastimes, and they looked different. They did all know each other, and they all lived at the same lake. The fact that they are associated to two different towns and schools suggests even more so that they had less to do with each other. Lake Cooper is still the connection." Reid replied.

Hotch sighed. "I don't know then." He finally said looking at Gideon who quietly thinking.

However, Gideon remained that way, as did everyone else, during lunch. There was nothing to say. They returned to their work. Nothing happened until mid-afternoon when JJ was called out to talk with a local cop.

"Uh, Hotch we might have a minor problem." JJ said when she returned a few minutes later. They left the room.

---

"Back off?" Hotch repeated stunned.

JJ and he were in the bullpen of the Watertown PD talking to Detective Stanten.

"Not back off, exactly." He replied. "It's just that you're interfering with some of our investigations."

"What do you mean by that?" Hotch asked curtly.

"Someone may have recognized Officer Heiden." Detective Stanten replied annoyed.

"Is he all right?" Hotch demanded.

"So far, but now the undercover work he's put in might be useless. We won't know until tonight." Stanten replied.

"He hid DNA and other evidence from us!" Hotch said nearly yelling.

"Are you insinuating that he may have deserved to be recognized? How dare you!" Stanten said fiercely.

"How dare you, a local cop, try to tell a federal agent to back off!" Hotch yelled.

The bullpen suddenly became very quiet.

"Some federal agent you are. Two girls are missing and you aren't even out there looking for them!" Stanten spat back.

"Hotch!" JJ said, restraining him. She knew Hotch's I'm might kill someone look. "Sir, we are doing out best to find the man who kidnapped the girls because we believe that will lead us to them." JJ said in her negotiating voice.

"What good is it doing?" came another voice from behind JJ.

They turned around to see Anna's and Sara's parents coming in. Anna's mother continued to speak.

"Our daughters are still gone." She said.

"Ma'am, we are truly sorry for that and we are doing our best to get them back-" JJ tried again.

"Oh really? Then where are they? Huh? Why is it that our two are gone, while all the other parents don't have to worry anymore?" Anna's mother screamed.

"Ma'am, please calm down." JJ started to say.

By now, the commotion had leaked into the conference room and the rest of the BAU team had ventured out into the bullpen.

"And Kristy? She's fine!" Mrs. Shaken screamed.

"What about me?"

Kristy had picked the absolute worst time to come down to the station. Anna's mother turned around shocked that she was there. Suddenly her nostrils flared, and she took off after Kristy screaming things such as 'not fair' and 'ungrateful little girl'. Thankfully, about 20 men jumped down on her before she could hurt Kristy. Morgan, being the strongest of the bunch restrained her while Reid and Emily went over to Kristy.

---

"What the hell?" Kristy said.

They moved her to a different room so she didn't have to keep hearing Mrs. Shaken's screams

"Kristy are you all right?" Emily asked.

"Yeah I think so." Kristy replied.

She suddenly began to tremble and sat down quickly.

Reid immediately went over to her.

"I'm going to be fine." Kristy said adamantly. "It just shocked me."

"Kristy it's okay." Reid said.

"What was going on?" Kristy asked again.

Reid shook his head.

"I'll go find out." Emily said.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Reid asked again.

"I think so. I'm just not used to being attacked by pissed off mothers." Kristy replied.

Reid smiled and relaxed. He knew she was going to be fine.

"I should have come down earlier." Kristy kept going.

"Why didn't you?" Reid asked.

"Well, I tried to go back to go school today. I was about to walk in the building, and I saw all of my classmates staring at me. Their looks felt like they were accusing me, like because of me, Cora, Ginger, Anna and Ginger were gone. Sort of like Anna's mom. I chickened out and asked to have the day off again. I got the whole you're missing too much school and we'll have to speak to your mother lecture, but they let me go. I went home and just started crying. I feel so guilty. I finally decided it would be best to come back here." Kristy said.

"Kristy you are not guilty." Reid said. "You didn't do anything wrong. Those kids were wrong to think that you should be blamed for something like this."

Kristy smiled. "Thanks." She said quietly.

Emily returned.

"Okay, as it turns out, the local PD is getting a little mad with us." She started. "They want us to back off a bit because their whole bust thing might now be ruined."

"What? That's crazy!" Reid exclaimed.

"Yeah, I know." Emily said. "And as we found out, Anna's and Stacey's parents felt the same way. They want us to either find the girls soon or they are threatening to make us leave."

"We're federal agents. We have more authority." Reid said dumbstruck.

Emily shrugged. "JJ, Hotch and Gideon are trying to sort it out. Morgan and I are going to keep going through the files."

Reid nodded, and Emily left. He turned to Kristy.

"I'm sorry. They usually aren't quite this stupid and hot-headed." Kristy said.

"The cops?" Reid inquired.

"Yeah. If you guys weren't here, they probably wouldn't even be close to finding the girls. I mean, someone in my step-family went missing last summer, and they hardly did a thing! It was us who organized search parties, and it was us who found him. Those girls would be screwed if it weren't for you guys." Kristy said. "Anyway, where did we leave off?"

"Uh, I don't remember. We'll just start off with some other things." Reid said as he sat down next to her. "What were you thinking about before you were drugged?" Reid asked.

"Before? Well, a lot of things. I was thinking about the movies I had watched that night, I was thinking about my crush, thinking about what was going to happen at school the next day." Kristy listed.

"Anything else?" Reid asked.

"You want specific? Okay, I was thinking about the really freaky parts of Silent Hill that were probably going to keep me until two. I was thinking about how to ask my crush Alecc out. There were a million things going through my head."

"You thought about all of that in the two blocks you walked before being attacked?" Reid asked.

"We had a couple energy drinks, I was fairly hyper." Kristy retorted. Then she laughed. "And I was also thinking about my stupid A- in Geometry."

Suddenly, Kristy stood up straight. Her eyes became wide and she began to shake again.

"Kristy?" Reid asked nervously. "Kristy are you okay?"

He tried to shake her, but her body was frozen almost in shock.

"Kristy!" Reid said.

She then collapsed to the floor.

---

"Come on, wake up!" Reid said. Kristy was lying on the floor, cold and unmoving.

Reid had called for help and Morgan and Emily were with him. Emily was calling the ambulance while they tried to revive her.

"What happened?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know." Reid said. "She was fine one moment, and then she passed out."

Then, many more people walked in including the rest of the team and other local cops.

Gideon knelt down beside Reid and Morgan while Hotch and JJ talked to the local cops.

Reid wasn't completely paying attention to their conversation, but from what he heard, the local cops were trying to blame them for Kristy passing out.

Suddenly her eyelids fluttered a bit.

"Kristy? You okay?" Morgan asked. Everyone became quiet.

She opened her eyelids all the way and looked around.

"Did… did I pass out?" She asked quietly. Everyone exchanged looks.

"Yeah. Are you all right?" Reid asked again.

"Dang it." Kristy said as she pushed herself up.

"Kristy stay down, it's all right." Everyone seemed to say at once.

"I'm fine." She said above them.

"This wouldn't have happened if you people weren't here." Stanten suddenly said.

This broke out a verbal fight between the BAU team and the local cops. However, Reid didn't join. He put his arm around Kristy and helped her sit up.

"What do you need to know?" She asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Reid asked.

"The memory came back." Kristy said. "What do you need to know?"

Reid was taken aback by what she had said. The fight was growing louder.

"Uh, anything that makes him different from everyone else." Reid said. She nodded and closed her eyes. "But, Kristy it's okay you don't need to-"

She suddenly grabbed his right wrist.

"He has a tattoo. Right here on the front side." She said, indicating his wrist. "It's red-ish, and says something but I don't know what."

Reid was so shocked that he completely forgot about everything going on around him. Suddenly, two EMT's pushed him out of the way as everyone else was taken out of the room. The BAU team went back to their conference room.

"What happened?" Hotch asked.

"She had the memory." Reid said quietly.

Everyone stared at him.

"You sure?" Hotch asked.

"She was able to tell me that he has a red tattoo with writing on his wrist." Reid said, excitement growing in his voice.

It hit him; they might be able to solve the case.

"I'll call the hospital. See if they know anyone with tattoos." Emily said.

"We'll go down there. If Kristy's there and the unsub happens to be as well, she can ID him." Gideon said.

"You will not." Stanten said. "We are having to send a girl to the hospital because of you."

"Don't tell us what to do and not do." JJ said. No longer was she trying to play nice. The cops had pissed the team off and they were paying for it. "We are federal agents who are on the job. We are going to do what we can to solve this case."

"Fine, go down to the hospital. But stay away from her." Stanten said.

"Why? It's not like you exactly cared about her." Reid suddenly said.

Everyone was shocked that it was Reid who spoke up.

"What do you mean?" Stanten said.

"The thing that set off the memory causing her to faint was a school subject. If we hadn't intervened, she would have gone on her daily business, not knowing what could happen, and she would have passed out in school. They probably would have thought she was going through a flashback that was created in her head. If it wasn't for us, no one would know that the man she saw in her flashback was really the unsub. Now, we can get this guy, and help two other girls." Reid said, breathing heavily by the time he had finished. "You never would have been able to do that."

"Just stay away from her. Then you'll do no more damage." Stanten said, not knowing how to respond to what Reid has said.

Everyone looked around tiredly.

"Everyone else besides JJ and I should probably go to the hospital. We'll try to sort out this mess." Hotch said.

---

At the hospital, Gideon and Emily took one half of the departments, while Morgan and Reid took the other half. They were going to talk to all the department heads and see if they could ID anyone.

"It's been a crazy day." Morgan commented as they started to walk down to the ER.

Reid nodded. He craned his neck, trying to see Kristy.

"Reid, the cops will be really pissed if they see you with her." Morgan said.

"Morgan, I don't really care. Kristy deserves to know if we get him. Besides, we haven't done anything wrong. You and Hotch followed all of the stipulations for meeting with Heiden. They can't say it's because of something we did." Reid said.

They approached the front desk.

"Hi. We're from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions." Morgan greeted the head nurse.

"Uh, I guess if you make it quick." She said.

"Ma'am, is there a man here who has a tattoo right here?" Reid asked, showing her exactly where Kristy had touched his arm. He could still feel her cold fingers.

"Uh, you know, I think I do know someone. He doesn't work in this part though." She replied.

"Where does he work?" Morgan asked.

"I think he's a transcriptionist." She replied. "He comes down here sometimes to get stuff."

"Thanks." Morgan and Reid said.

Morgan grabbed his cell phone.

"Gideon we got a lead-" Morgan started to say.

"We got a name. Nathaniel Grimow." Gideon said. "He's here at work, his office is on the third floor. We're headed there now."

"We're on the second. Where do we go?" Morgan asked.

"3E" Gideon replied as they hung up.

---

"That's him." Kristy said quietly.

A half hour ago, Reid had been standing outside Nathanial Grimow's office, waiting with the others. Grimow came out quietly, and on his right wrist, there was a red heart with a date on it.

'This has got to be him.' Reid thought.

All that was needed now was a DNA test. Gideon, Emily, and Morgan had taken him down to the station and also try to find why his name hadn't appeared in any of the files. Reid had decided to find Kristy and tell her. Before they had taken Grimow, Reid had grabbed his hospital ID, which had his photo on it.

Kristy had just confirmed that Grimow was the man. She now looked ready to puke.

"Are you feeling okay?" Reid asked.

"I'm feeling fine. I feel a lot better now that I've had the memory. I mean, it really did scare me. I didn't expect it to all of a sudden appear in my head. I expected it would come slowly, but all of sudden I could feel him grabbing me, and…and" Kristy started shaking again.

Reid put his hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. You were really brave and a lot of girls were helped because of you." Reid reminded her.

Kristy smiled. "Thanks. What happens now?"

"Well, we're going to do a DNA test. We're also going to see if he will confess." Reid replied. "Have they told you what's going to happen with you?" Reid asked.

"I think the cops are trying to say that I might have a bleed in my brain and I should be kept overnight for observation." Kristy spat out sarcastically. "Stupid cops."

Reid laughed.

"It might be best. We don't know that this won't have any more effects. You should be fine thought, especially by tomorrow if nothing has happened." Reid assured her.

Kristy nodded. "How did you see me? I heard that one detective threatening you."

Reid smiled. "The nurse was greatly moved by my badge."

Reid's insides twisted guiltily, remembering the poor pharmacist.

Kristy laughed. She then became very pensive.

"My Mom and Dad will come back tomorrow. They still don't really understand what happened because I didn't really tell them." Kristy said. "Can, can you stay with me for a while?" Kristy asked timidly. "I don't want to be alone quite yet."

"Sure." Reid said.

He wasn't used to someone trusting him this much, but he liked it. It was a relief to the negative feelings he had been having so much lately.

---

"Hey sweetie." Garcia greeted him. Kristy and Reid had been talking for a long time and his cell phone just rang.

"Garcia, what's up?" He asked.

"Well, I just got the DNA sample from Hotch. And you are on speaker with the rest of the team as of now."

"Morgan." Morgan intercepted.

"Hey hot stuff. Put me on speaker." Garcia ordered.

"You're on speaker." Morgan said.

"Hey Morgan. What's been going on?" Reid asked.

"Hey Reid. Not a lot. The guy gave up a sample pretty quick, but then his lawyer showed up and he hasn't said anything since." Morgan replied.

"Well, according to the sample you sent, your man is, wait, no!" Garcia said.

"What Garcia?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know. The machine is telling me that they don't match." Garcia said quietly.

"You sure?" Reid asked impatiently, as he stepped out of the room so that Kristy wouldn't hear.

"Yes. All I'm getting is that unsub is of relation to Grimow." Garcia said.

"That can't be right. Kristy ID'ed him." Reid practically yelled.

"Reid, calm down." Hotch spoke. "We'll look into Grimow's relatives and find the guy."

"That's going to be hard sir. According to his file, Grimow's parents and son are dead. He was an only child. Anything after that wouldn't show this much relation." Garcia said. "All I can tell you is what this machine is telling me. I'm faxing over the results, you can look for yourself." Garcia said, worry in her voice.

"Okay. Thanks mama." Morgan said. Garcia hung up on her line.

"Reid, we'll send them over to the hospital. You can take a look at them. We'll see if we can get him to talk because someone related to him did this." Gideon assured Reid.

Reid waited impatiently outside the nurses station where the fax was being sent. He was angry. Grimow fit the profile. He was 49. He had the tattoo. He worked a menial job in a hospital where he had access to Etomidate. Kristy ID'd him. What was wrong?

Unfortunately, Garcia had been correct. The DNA line of the original sample did not match Grimow's. Reid cursed and begrudgingly went back into Kristy's room.

"What happened?" She demanded.

"Kristy," Reid began slowly, "the DNA, it didn't provide a match."

Kristy stared at Reid for a moment.

"What are you talking about? It's him! He did it." Kristy said firmly.

"He couldn't have Kristy. The DNA says he didn't." Reid sadly replied.

"But he did!" Kristy yelled.

"Kristy, look." Reid said. He gave her the sheet of the DNA lines.

"But…how is that…how could he…what the…" She began to mutter.

She was silent for many minutes as she stared at the DNA sheet. Reid sat down and waited for her.

"What's this second line?" Kristy asked.

Reid looked at the paper. Sure enough, on the DNA samples, there were two lines instead of one.

"Well, sometimes in twins, the DNA is shared so much that they can appear secondarily in later DNA." Reid explained.

"So, could an identical twin done this?" Kristy asked.

"No. Grimow's an only child." Reid replied.

"Then why is a secondary line of DNA here?" Kristy asked.

"I don't know." Reid replied. "Sometimes, there are genetic defects that could cause this. Not enough research has been done in this field to determine most oddities that appear."

Kristy sighed. She didn't say much else the rest of the night. Reid kept calling back to the station, but nothing was turning up. No one of relation to Nathanial Grimow could have done this. They released him.

---

Reid had decided to stay at the hospital until Kristy fell asleep. She was taking this incredibly hard. The team called it another tired night at 10.

Around 11, Reid's eyelids started to droop while Kristy appeared wired. After an hour, Reid couldn't take it anymore and started to go off into a doze which later led to sleep.

His sleep was fitful. He kept having nightmares, all of them involving someone he cared about getting hurt. Reid kept waking up. Around 4, he couldn't take it anymore. His body cried for the Dilaudid, which was safely stored in Reid's satchel.

With Kristy finally safely sleeping, Reid stealthily walked into the room's bathroom. Taking into consideration the time of night, he knew he could give himself a full dose. It would be enough to satisfy his craving and give him enough rest to make it until morning.

As he readied the needle, he swore he heard something. He looked up for a moment, hoping not to get caught. It was silent again, so he returned to his work. He finally let the drug back, and he felt elated. Reid wanted more, but he knew it would have to wait.

Then, he was sure he heard something. Reid opened the door and through his blurry vision saw a large, dark figure. Reid tried to make out what was happening, but his senses were greatly impaired. The next thing he knew, something sharp pierced his neck, and suddenly it became too difficult to keep his eyes open… too difficult to try to think…

---

Reid never did feel of his head hitting the floor.

***

Next part of Actions Speak Louder than Words.

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