A/N: I meant to post this on Jan 1st, but I totally forgot. Sorry to those who have been begging me for it.
Here it is now... So, start harping on me to write I need to get chapter 2 out!
Enjoy, and get ready for what might be another year of Angst, Friendship, Love, Temptation, and anything else yummy like that.

Cheers!


Flesh and Blood

Chapter 1: The Return

Six months. Six months had passed for Reid since he had re-entered the world of the sober souls. He was thankful every day for what he had achieved. He was one of the lucky ones, and he knew it. The statistics were always there, in the forefront of his mind, to remind him.

His new apartment was larger than his previous one, located in a secure building. Controlled access and gated. Safe. It was one less thing he needed to worry about. The apartment was clean and well-kept. The door opened into a small foyer, a closet to the left, beyond which were his desk and computer, and spreading open into the living room on the right. Past the living room were large sliding glass doors leading to a balcony overlooking the trees and manicured walkways on the building's property. Further into the semi-open space was the quaint kitchen, the first left off the hall, all upgraded appliances. The corner closest to the living space was cut out so that guests could interact with their host. The next door in the hallway was to the large bedroom on the right, complete with his-&-hers closets. Reid's clothes filled up only half of what he had chosen as the "his" side. At the end of the hall was a small room with a private furnace and water heating system. To the left of this was a small hall, next to the kitchen, with a vertical washer/dryer setup, and a final door on the right, hosting the bathroom.

There was a new addition in Reid's life as well. A six year old brown tabby, which he had renamed Hypatia after Hypatia of Alexandria, a famous female philosopher. She gave him a focus, something to care for. An innocent life he was responsible for.

During the long days when the team was away on a case, he could settle down with a good book, read it slowly, and she would be there, purring away next to him, and occasionally on top of him, getting her face into the book.

And at night, it was comforting to have something warm to snuggle up to. It was starting to cool off outside, the leaves slowly starting to shift colours; September.

Reid stood at his balcony window, looking out onto the trees below while Hypatia curled around his legs mewing at him. He glanced down at her with a small smile. "I'm okay, just thinking." She mewed again. "What about? Nothing really, just that it was about a year ago when I started to spiral out of control. And in three more months, it'll be a year since I hit rock bottom. So, it's depressing, but it's a good thing. Nine months clean."

Hypatia nuzzled his leg with a soft meow, and then trotted off down the hall, presumably to go lay on the bed. Reid chuckled to himself, once again realizing that he was in fact talking to his cat. He'd seen pet owners do it, read about it, but he had never understood it completely, and now he found himself doing it nearly every day. And frankly he didn't care if she could understand him or not, she acted like she did and that was good enough for him.

A knock on his door let him know that Gideon had arrived. Reid called over his shoulder, "Come in!" The door didn't open. With a sigh, and a shake of his head he turned and strode across the living room to open the door. He didn't bother to say 'hello' as he opened the heavy door. "You can just come in you know. You have a key for a reason."

Gideon smiled stiffly, "I know," he said as he crossed the threshold, "I just don't want you to feel like I'm intruding."

"I wouldn't have given you the gate password, main door key card, and a key to this door," he said as he closed it behind his guest, "if I would have felt that way about you letting yourself in."

"I know that too," Gideon replied. "It's about trust. I trust you to be okay, and answer the door. And you need to trust me to not just come in and check up on you unexpectedly."

Reid shook his head with a half-smile, "I appreciate that, but in this case I was expecting you."

Gideon moved to the couch and sat down, putting his bag of work-related files and books on the floor by his feet.

"I'll put the coffee on; back in a flash." Reid said, turning towards the hall and making his way to the kitchen. As he entered the room, he immediately hurried to the coffee machine and flipped the switch, having already done the preparation earlier. He glanced up through the opening in the wall, and noticed that Gideon already had a case file out and was studying it intently. Seeing the tan folder with the FBI logo on the cover made his heart skip a beat. It was the first time Gideon had brought anything work related over. Maybe it meant something good for him. Maybe he was going to be allowed to help out now. Or maybe Gideon just hadn't gone home to drop it off first.

Reid tried not to get his hopes up as he returned with the coffee. Gideon closed the folder and took the offered mug from Reid's hand before Reid sat down across from him. Reid fidgeted for a moment as he looked at the folder. He didn't want to sound desperate but his curiosity was winning out. "So," he motioned to the folder, "what do you have there? Anything interesting?"

Gideon looked up from his coffee, "Local case, but you know I can't talk to you about it."

Reid's expression deflated slightly, "Oh, I thought that maybe, you wanted my help."

"Sorry, Spencer, I didn't mean to give you that impression. We probably could use your brain on this one, but that's not my call. It's up to Hotch and Strauss to sign off on your reintegration to the team."

Reid sighed, "Yeah. Do you think they ever will? I mean, you have been telling them how much better I am, right?"

"Of course I have. Aaron knows how much you want to be back with us, and he knows you're almost ready. And when the time comes, he'll fight for you. We all will." Gideon assured Reid.

"Alright." Reid replied. There was a brief pause before he continued, "He hasn't come to see me in a few weeks."

Gideon gave Reid a half smile, "That's more often than he used to visit a year or two ago."

Reid smiled a little, "Okay, true." His gaze once again fell on the folder in front of Gideon. "Are you sure I can't have a little peek?"

Gideon mused over it for a moment before speaking, "I can't knowingly allow you to do that. I can't witness it." A pause. "I'm going to go to the bathroom; I'll be about two minutes." He stood giving Reid a sideways smile before moving past him and down the hall.

Reid waited until Gideon had disappeared down the hall before jumping on the folder. Two minutes was plenty of time for him. He opened it and flipped passed the pages of information, and onto the victim photos; those would take the longest for him to study – no words. There were only about 10 photos, but with them was a list that must have neared 100 names, and their information. He frowned; victimology was seemingly all over the map. No constants in age, race or gender, though the majority did seem to be male, and they were all malnourished.

One of the photos made his breath catch in his throat; a splash of dark curls against a hard cold coroners slab. He did a double take and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't him. It wasn't Tamesis.

Reid took a couple seconds to refocus, and then flipped to the cause of death of each of the victims, to see the connection there. Obviously they weren't of the same physical type, so the connection had to be in how they died. Cause of death was a drug overdose – Reid shuddered – a combination of a handful of drugs was found in their systems. All in varying amounts, but all the same drugs.

He turned the pages to look at the list of drugs; LSD, PCP, Ecstasy, THC, cocaine, heroin, and meth. He frowned and read the list again, and then once more. He was still staring at it when Gideon returned and cleared his throat to get Reid's attention. Reid ignored him as he went back to the beginning of the folder and started speed reading the entire thing.

Gideon sighed and moved back to his position on the couch. "Spencer, put it down. I wasn't supposed to see you reading it." Reid continued to ignore him. "Spencer…" Gideon reached a hand out to take the folder from him, but Reid refused to let go.

Looking up into Gideon's eyes, Reid held his gaze, unblinking. "I need to be on this case. Call Hotch right now, and tell him I'm working on this case no matter what."

"Spencer, I can't do that. I can let him know you want to be, but that's all."

"No, that's not good enough. I can help with this. I know this case. I know who's behind this." Reid insisted.

Gideon furrowed his brow. "What do you mean? Who is it?"

Reid took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "It's Connors."