𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 𝓳𝓪𝓷𝓮 ➢ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓎-𝒻𝒾𝓋𝑒

"I don't think he followed her to Virginia." Morgan said onto the ninth hour of looking for her.

"Why?"

"Something brought him here." Reid finished for him.

"We think Mara leaving was the trigger."

"No, that was almost a year ago, he wouldn't wait that long to act on it if he feels like he's been betrayed." Reid replied.

"Well, we said that he couldn't have know where Mallory or Mara could live," Hotch said. "What if he did?"

"What do you mean?"

"Someone on the inside of her life could have been giving him details."

Everyone looked at Reid as he went over everyone he knew in her life. "There's only one other person in her life that could be angry enough to do this."

"Who?" Hotch demanded.

"Shawn," Reid quickly said. "Shawn Jackson, he's an agent here."

"He would be able to find her address and Mallory's," Morgan said. "Were they still seeing each other?"

"No," Reid quickly said. "Not since that fight in the bullpen."

Garcia raised her hand awkwardly, catching the teams attention. "Actually, they haven't seen each other since Mara went undercover."

"What happened?" Morgan asked her.

She shrugged. "I don't know. She said she wasn't feeling it anymore."

"That could have been the trigger, being rejected by Mara."

"No, it's more than that." Hotch said, his eyes falling on Reid.

"What is it, Reid?"

"We slept together the night she went undercover." He said quietly.

Everyone around him was shocked at his comment. Not only shocked that they kept it professional, or that they both lied to the team, but that Reid was actually sleep with someone casually. They all had a preconception of him and this threw it out the window. He stared down at his fingers, not looking at the team. "Shawn could have been there. I kissed her in the hallway outside her apartment."

"That's the trigger," Hotch said, his eyes not leaving Reid. "Shawn was betrayed she'd chosen Reid over him and when Fox was coming to town for the fifteenth anniversary, he found Shawn first."

"You think Shawn was a victim?" Emily asked.

"No, I think Fox found him because he knew he had a connection to Mara and he found a pure psychopath instead."

"By the end of the night, one of them is going to be dead," Emily said. "Two psychopaths can't share one victim. All we can do it wait for one of their bodies to show up."

Garcia spoke from her computer. "I put an APB out on Shawn. If he shows up anywhere, we'll know."

"He would stay close to here to taunt us."

"Garcia, check all abandoned warehouses to see if lights were turned on, if he's going to torture her, he needs electricity."

She typed away on her computer before shaking her head. Hotch opened his mouth to say something but Garcia's computer dinged.

"They just found a body outside this building," she said, continuing to type as Reid's heart began to pound. "It's Shawn."

The team moved downstairs and to the newly placed crime scene, finding Shawn's body on the ground in front of the door, blood pouring from a wound on his chest. Morgan grabbed some gloves and leaned down, pulling a note and a bottle of ketamine from his shirt pocket.

Reid grabbed the note and opened it, quickly reading it. "We've got a number. He wants to contact us."

"What's the significance of the ketamine?"

"If we contact him, we're going to want to talk to Mara," Hotch said. "It could be symbolizing that he's going to kill her.

Reid ran up the stairs and back into the conference room, ordering Garcia to start a trap and trace while the rest of the team sat at the table anxiously.

Reid dialed the number, putting it on speaker phone as Garcia got ready to trace the number. It rang eight time before someone picked it up.

"Hello?" Reid asked, leaning over the table. "Mara?"

"Doctor Spencer Reid," Paul Fox said from the other side of the phone. "Three PhD's and yet, you become stupid when you're around her."

"I need to talk to her, make sure she's okay." Reid said shortly.

"Of course," Fox said. "The reason I gave you this number is because I wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye."

Reid bit down hard on his lip as there was shuffling and sniffling filled the phone. "Spencer?"

Reid let out a breath at the sound of her voice, tears falling down his face. "Mara, hey."

"I don't know where I am, I don't-"

"Don't!" Fox yelled at her.

She sobbed, Garcia swiping tears from her face while the rest of the team tried to keep
theirselves together. "I'm so sorry, Reid, I just-I needed to save you guys. You're the only family I have left-"

"I know, I know," Reid replied. "We're gonna get you."

Mara didn't say anything for a while and Garcia was struggling to find the location. "Mar?"

"I never thought I could love anyone since my brother died but you changed that, Reid," she spoke quietly as Reid blinked back tears. "I love you. So much. All you've done is care for me and I can't thank you enough."

"This isn't goodbye, Mara."

"Yes, it is," she replied. "Just listen...I'll always remember us this way."

"Time's up." Fox said, taking the phone back.

"Wait, I lo-" the line went dead and Reid closed his eyes, chin wobbling as tears slid down his face.

"Her last comment didn't make sense," Reid said as he struggled to keep himself together. "Why would she mention her brother? It-it doesn't make sense!"

Morgan got up and set a hand on his shoulder. "Reid, listen, I know this is hard for you. But Mara said everything for a reason and we need to figure it out. We need your head here."

"Garcia, were you able to find the location?"

"No, sir, it's a disposable cell phone."

"Where was the last known location?"

She typed for a second before looking up at her team. "Right outside this building."