𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 𝓳𝓪𝓷𝓮 ➢ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓎-𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑒𝑒

Reid returned back to HQ, sending a quick text to Mara to let her know he was safe. He watched the three reply bubble come up and then go away.

The team fell asleep late into the night, Garcia keeping close to her computer and waiting for Paul Fox's face to pop up somewhere. The next morning, Garcia made everyone coffee when they woke up. Reid dialed Mara's number to see if she was okay but there was no answer.

He called a couple more times before grabbing Morgan and heading to her apartment just o check up on her. When they arrived, her car was parked out front as some agents returned it this morning so she could get to HQ is she needed to. They both moved up the stairs, Reid moving at a rapid pace.

When he got to her apartment, he moved his hand to knock but, acting on a feeling, he turned the knob and pushed it open. Reid looked up at Morgan. "She would never leave her door unlocked. Especially not now."

He pushed open the door, pulling his gun from his holster. Reid's eyes widened at the mess of the apartment. The first thing that caught his eye was the blood on the floor. Morgan cleared the rest of the apartment while Reid profiled the mess.

"There was an obvious struggle but something is strange," Reid muttered, his voice shaking as he motioned to the mess. "He charged her over here and they fought but over here, this mess isn't the same. He made this mess to cover up the one he made when he attacked her."

"Let's think about this," Morgan said, setting his hands on his hips. "Paul Fox would be forty-four. Mara's a trained agent, her physicality is perfect, I trained her. She knows how to fight her way out of any situation. Something isn't right. He wouldn't have been able to subdue her."

Reid's eyes widened as his eyes fell on the mail that she hide the day he was over there. "Unless she gave herself over and he made it look like a mess to make us think she's been taken."

Morgan furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would she do that?"

Reid pulled a note from the mail, opening it and reading it quickly. "This is a letter from Fox. The handwriting is male, a connection with the person he's writing to, it's him."

"What does it say?"

"When you love someone, you have to let them go. That's why I let you go, Mara. You had so much learning to do and I knew I helped you become the person you are, you need to thank me," Reid said, clearing his throat. "You think you love them? You think you love him? If you love them, let them go. Or I'll make them disappear. I'll make him disappear."

"Him is bolded in both sentences so it's obvious aggression he has to whoever this 'him' is." Morgan said, looking over his shoulder and at the note.

"'Them' is the team," Reid responded. "'Him,' that's me."

Morgan dialed Hotch's number as Reid looked through her apartment and tried to find something that could lead them to where she is. Why she gave herself away.

"Why'd you do it?" Reid whimpered, looking at the picture of the two on her nightstand.

Morgan watched as Reid sat down on her bed and his body slumped, sobs racking his body. Morgan went and sat down next to him, an arm going around his shoulders to comfort his friend.

"We were helping her," Reid said, his voice shaking with the sobs. "We were protecting her. Why would she do this?"

"That letter was threatening our lives and most importantly, yours Reid," Morgan said to him. "You and Mara are closest in the team, anyone can see that. Of any of us, you'd be the one he'd target."

"I promised I wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"You didn't do this."

"She knows this was a trap, she's literally trained to know that this letter was a ruse to get her to run to him," Reid said angrily, standing up. "If she treated this like a normal case, she would have called a bluff."

"He killed her other best friend, in her mind, he wasn't bluffing."

Reid ignored the shaking in his hands as he made his way back downstairs and to the car.