Tequila || Spencer Reid

Morgan

By the time the jet touched down in Las Vegas, the case had already shifted beneath them. Garcia's update about another abduction followed the team off the aircraft like a warning siren, and within minutes Hotch had redirected Morgan and Prentiss to the newest scene. The victim was still alive somewhere. That changed everything.

But as Morgan drove, his focus kept splitting in two. One part of him stayed on the case—the abduction site, the time window, the victimology. The other circled back to Reid. To Montgomery. To the way both men had gone too still in the briefing room the moment those victim photos appeared. He glanced over at his partner. "Prentiss... Have you noticed Reid has been acting strange?"

Emily looked away from the passing streets long enough to study him. "Yeah, but it's Reid, so it's not like it's anything out of the ordinary."

Derek gave her a look, the kind that said he was not buying the easy explanation. "Yeah, but Matty has been acting weird too... It's like they're keeping something from the rest of us... and it's gotten worse since we caught this case."

Emily shook her head, calm but not dismissive. "I'm sure it's nothing, Morgan. You know how they are; they'll talk about whatever it is when they're ready to... don't overthink it too much."

Morgan sighed, but the question stayed with him. Cases rattled people. That was part of the job. But Reid and Montgomery were not reacting to the violence alone. They were reacting to a pattern, to something underneath the facts that the rest of the team had not been told. For now, Morgan forced his attention back to the abduction. A living victim meant a narrowing window, and suspicion would have to wait.

They processed the abduction site with the methodical control the work demanded. Tire marks. Witness statements. Camera angles. The kind of ordinary details that, once assembled correctly, could become a trail. But even as Morgan walked the scene with Prentiss, that unsettled feeling kept pressing at the back of his mind. Something about the case was wrong in a way he could not yet name. Spencer and Matty were not helping. Every glance they shared made it feel less like concern and more like recognition.

It was a profiler's instinct, the kind that did not come from evidence so much as behavior. Morgan had asked once on the jet and gotten nowhere. He knew pushing harder without leverage would only make them close ranks. So he filed the look away, added it to the growing list of things that did not fit, and kept moving.

Emily noticed the way his attention kept drifting and gave him a small shake of her head. She understood secrets better than most people. Everyone on the team carried something private, something tucked beneath the badge and the training and the case files. Whatever Reid and Montgomery were hiding, Emily did not think it was hurting the investigation. Not yet.

Morgan saw the look and exhaled through his nose. He knew what Emily was telling him: leave it alone. He also knew himself well enough to know he would not. Reid was family. Montgomery had become part of the unit's rhythm. If something had them both on edge, then Morgan wanted to know whether it was grief, guilt, or danger.

It was not long before the team reconvened at the precinct, each pair bringing back pieces of the same ugly puzzle. The room smelled faintly of burnt coffee, printer toner, and too many people running on too little sleep. Evidence photos covered the board. Maps were spread across the table. Every new detail added pressure, but none of it gave them a door to kick in.

They debriefed the others on what they had learned at the abduction site. Morgan watched Reid and Montgomery closely as the newest victim's photograph was added to the board. There it was again—that flicker between them, quick and controlled, gone before anyone else seemed to register it. Recognition. Fear. Maybe both. Morgan wanted to call it out in front of the room, but he knew better. If they were hiding something, cornering them now would only make them bury it deeper.