Copycat//Criminal Minds FanFic

Realisations

No one said anything for a long while after Reid's revelation. Morgan was moving his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Hotch had the file and was staring at it like Reid had. Prentiss was looking at everyone else in shock. JJ was pale. Rossi shook his head as he stared at the table.

"I guess this means that we have an idea of what the next victim will be," Prentiss managed to say.

"Yeah," Rossi agreed.

Hotch shifted in his chair. He reached for the phone and quickly dialed.

"You've reached the Office of Higher Knowledge, how may I help you underlings," Garcia's voice emitted from the speaker phone.

"Garcia, could you run a check to find people who took a religious pilgrimage within a hundred mile radius of here?" Hotch asked.

"Of course, my liege. Consider is done." Garcia clicked off the phone.

"I'll go talk to the hotel manager and see if anyone checked in for a long stay," Morgan said as he got up.

"Ask Handel if he could find out if any houses were rented or recently bought on your way out," Hotch called after Morgan.

"I can't help feeling that we're missing something," Rossi said, shaking his head. He picked up a paper stack and started going through it.

"We've been through everything that we have," Hotch said.

"Then maybe it's something we don't have," Reid said as he grabbed the phone and dialed. "Why didn't I think of this earlier..."

"A hundred miles is a lot of ground to cover, I'm not that fast," Garcia said.

"Actually, I was calling to ask for another favour."

"You want an addition to your order?" Reid could hear Garcia's fingers flying in the background.

"I need you to run a search on all FBI agents that have a family history of mental illnesses and cross reference that with any agents that were dismissed or retired recently." Did you know that schizophrenia is genetically passed?

There was a slight pause on Garcia's end of the line. "Okay, your order has been processed. I will call you cool cats back when I have everything done." She hung up the phone.

The rest of the team looked at Reid with a question written all over their faces.

"In the notes, he leaves, the unsub says that he has no choice. He might feel forced by something that happened in his life, but it could also be that he is being told to by something in his mind. He could think that killing the victims will bring him peace. It's rare that someone schizophrenic is violent to others. Usually, they're only violent toward themselves. This person could be thinking that someone's out to get him or plotting against him and the only thing that could save him is to kill people and cover his tracks by copying the murders of others. He probably doesn't like to kill; he believes it is a necessity," Reid explained.

Hotch nodded. "Good thinking, Reid."

Reid gave one of his half-smiles; he wasn't in a real celebrating mood. He drained the rest of his coffee.

____________________________________

What do you want?!?

I want you to be safe.

Then let me be.

They're still out there. They going to find you. You have to make them leave you alone.

They're only coming after me because of what you told me to do!

They were always coming after you. They were watching, ever since you went in there, they started watching you. They were biding their time, waiting for you to mess up. I saved you by making you go away.

I don't believe you!

Yes, you do. I know you do.

No...no...

It's time.

____________________________________

Reid walked back into the police station an hour later with his latest cup of coffee. During the time they had been waiting for Garcia to call back, they had interviewed all of the people who rented out houses and the owner of the only hotel in the town. Prentiss and JJ were finishing up with the last house. Morgan, Hotch and Rossi were in the conference room already.

Reid hesitated taking off his sunglasses when he got inside. He'd been slowly getting a migraine the entire day, and it had finally reached a climax. The fluorescent lights were doing nothing for him. His only hope seemed to rest in a cup of caffeine.

"Reid, man, you look like crap."

"Thanks, Morgan," Reid said sarcastically as he rubbed his temples with one hand.

The phone rang right next to Reid's ear, causing him to cringe.

"Talk to me, Garcia," Morgan quickly answered the phone.

"Well, it turns out that there are five people within a close proximity to you guys that have recently gone on a pilgrimage. None are located in that town, of course, but I went ahead and sent their addresses to Hotch's phone. Reid, I was able to find five people who matched your description. Two of them had worked for the FBI for a couple of months, one had been working there a year, and the other two had been working there for quite a number of years. I'm faxing their information over for you."

"Thanks, Garcia." Morgan reached for the end call button.

"Do me a favour and find this guy fast," Garcia said just before the call was ended.

Reid closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as the fax machine kicked on. It was agony for the next thirty seconds.

"I'm going to go make some calls and to these place," Hotch excused himself as he looked as his phone.

"I'll go talk to Handel." Rossi got up and left the room.

Morgan and Reid sat in silence for a few minutes. Reid sipped his coffee, enjoying the silence. The caffeine helped a little bit, but not nearly enough.

"You okay?" Morgan asked again.

"Just a migraine." Reid leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes.

"Do you need some meds?"

"No," Reid answered, maybe a little quickly.

"You look horrible. You've looked horrible for weeks. Tell me what's up."

"I've just been having some trouble sleeping." Reid didn't move or open his eyes, but he could feel Morgan's gaze.

"Reid, I'm worried about you, man."

"I'll be fine, Morgan. Don't worry. We should be worried about Prentiss."

Morgan considered him a moment. "Yeah, you're right. She's been really quiet since we found out about the next planned murder."

Reid was about to say something when Hotch came back in.

"I've called the officers in the towns and they're going to check on the potential victims," he said as he sat down. He glanced at Reid, then at Morgan. Morgan shrugged.

Reid was getting a little annoyed, but he knew that if he said something they would know something was wrong. He pretended to be ignorant and started examining the lists Garcia sent over. There were two sets of files. One was a list of all current and former agents with mental illness in the family and the other contained the files off the five agents mentioned earlier. Without really thinking about it, Reid looked through the list down to his name. He showed no emotion as he placed the list aside and started reading through the five files. The two that had worked for the FBI for years had retired at ages of fifty and sixty from desk jobs. Reid went ahead and mentally crossed them off the list. The other three were all fair game. Two left of their own accord, and one was dismissed for shooting an unarmed subject. Reid started to mention this when Hotch got a phone call.

"Agent Hotchner... okay... we'll be right there." Hotch snapped the phone shut and ran a hand over his face. "We're too late."