A/n warning for very dark content and OCC behavior. This one-shot takes place this season.
"Finally," Spencer Reid whispered to the man lying on a stainless-steel autopsy table. The time had arrived for him to indulge his new favorite hobby.
Reid studied the man intently and memorized the grizzled lines of his round face, his bulging blue eyes, and his hugely fat body. Spencer's latest kill had a crooked nose, a high forehead topped with receding gray-blond hair and a thin-lipped mouth. He smelled of the peppermint candy he used to lure and capture ten young boys into his decade's old van. It lingered in the air like an accusation, and it made Reid grimace.
Reid sighed and picked up his plastic safety goggles from a table situated near the autopsy slab and slipped them over his eyes. He grabbed his electric bone saw. Time to get to work dismembering the body and disposing of this blight on humanity. "You got what you deserved, Mr. Pedophile. You'll never kidnap, torture, rape and kill again."
As the saw whirled to life, Reid sighed again, this time in satisfaction at a job well done, and the release found through the taking of an evil life. Soon, this creature, this twisted humanity would be a distant and pleasurable memory, and Reid's world would be cleaner and more perfect.
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Three weeks later, Dr. Spencer Reid of the BAU entered the bullpen with Matt and Tara. He'd just pulled his messenger bag over his head when JJ hurried through the glass doors and into their workspace.
"Hey, Spence," she greeted happily. "Missed you."
"Missed you," Reid replied. "Teaching is fun, but I'm glad to be back."
"Good to have you back," Luke agreed as he entered with a steaming cup of coffee.
Reid glanced up at the walkway above and in the direction of Emily and Rossi's office. Yes, it was good to be back and playing the role of a dedicated agent, at least for now.
"Yeah, the place isn't the same without you," Matt remarked as Tara nodded and smiled.
"Sweet cheeks," Garcia hurried into the bullpen on chunky-heeled shoes. She pulled him into a bear hug, and Reid smiled at JJ over her shoulder as he returned the embrace with enthusiasm.
"I forbid you to leave again," Garcia ordered. "I missed you too much."
Reid hummed, noncommittedly under his breath, "I'm happy to see you, too."
Yes, he was happy to be back, even if he'd miss the adrenaline rush of taking out another evil man or woman and preventing them from perpetrating their brand of horror on the innocent. He pushed back thoughts of seeing a disarticulated corpse sinking into a vat of hydrochloric acid, hearing it sizzle and bubble as the corrosive liquid reduced it to nothing, and smelling the acrid scent of melting flesh and burning hair.
"Spence?"
Reid realized that JJ studied him with curiosity. "Sorry, JJ. What did you say?"
"It's too early in the day for you to daydream," Tara observed as the others chuckled.
"I was thinking about a book I found at the library. Did you know that –"
"Stop right there," said an amused JJ. "It's too early on a Monday for a book review."
Reid stopped because he'd successfully led her away from her curiosity about his thoughts. It was too bad that she couldn't see him for what he'd become, but it didn't matter. "Let's get to work," Reid suggested.
"You're the only agent I know that likes paperwork," Tara complained as they all groaned.
Reid smirked as he sat and began to go through the stack waiting in his inbox. After all, his "Sabbatical" activities didn't require paperwork written up in triplicate, and that was fine by him.