A/N: welcome to my first Criminal Minds fanfic! yay! i don't own anything to do with it, only the new characters are mine. i'll try to come up with as many Reid Moments, as i like to call them, when he goes all genuis on us, but it'll be difficult, considering i'm not a genius. however, i will try! and without further adue, the story! enjoy!

Chapter 1: Meet the Linguist

San Diego, California

"Kelly! Come on!" one girl laughed as she tugged on the blonde's arm to drag her from the door way. "You need some fun in your life!"

"I have enough fun on my own," she grinned, pulling her arm away. "I don't feel like going out tonight anyway. Don't you watch the news? There's weird things going on out there!"

"Not where we're going," the other girl grinned, trying to catch Kelly's hand again. "Come on!"

"No!" Kelly laughed, pulling her hand away one more time. "I'm going inside now. Be careful! Have a good time!"

"Your loss!" the girl called, sauntering away and waving a good bye to the blonde as she pulled her keys from her purse to open the door.

"Not hardly," she muttered, opening the door into the dark living room.

She sighed, shutting the door behind her and moved to flip on the light but a hand caught her wrist and another hand clamped over her mouth as she screamed into the gloved hand as her eyes shot wide in terror.

Quantico, Virginia

Derek laughed, softly as he leaned back in his chair, JJ shaking her head at him in hopelessness as she stood behind him while he quietly tossed paper clips at a sleeping Spencer, missing several times as Emily sat on the edge of the desk with a cup of coffee, watching the scene. A paper clip finally hit Spencer on the nose, making him jolt awake and nearly fall from his seat as the other three chuckled, Spencer sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Hey, what's got you sleepin' on the job?" Derek asked, sitting up in his chair as well. "Late night with a hot date?"

"Hardly," Spencer replied, leaning over to pick up the paper clips around his desk and ignoring the entertainment the three had chosen at his expense. "More like a restless sleep."

"Having nightmares again?" JJ asked, picking up a file she'd set down earlier on Derek's desk and stepping around it to head toward Spencer.

"Not really," he admitted, placing the paper clips on his desk and beginning to line them up on the surface in boredom then shrugged, "Just one of those nights, I guess."

"Never thought Dr. Spencer Reid would have 'one of those nights'," Emily smiled, jokingly as she stood as well to walk toward her own desk.

"First time for everything," Derek smirked but Spencer's mind was elsewhere as everyone got back to work.

The cause of his restless night was a mystery to him, and even though he knew the chances of accurately predicting the future were impossible, scientifically, he had an odd feeling that something was coming. He wasn't sure if it would be good or bad, but he had a feeling…

"Guys?"

The four looked up to see Hotch waving them toward the briefing room, and they all stood to follow him. Once inside they noticed Garcia, Rossi and an unfamiliar red-head were at the table, the red-head hurriedly arranging files and papers on the desk as Rossi relaxed in a chair and Garcia helped her where she could. When the other five entered, the red-head's emerald gaze shot up, her ponytail whipping around her head to let the end rest on her shoulder and she quickly stood tall, straightening out her cream colored pants suit and shoving the ponytail back behind her again.

"Team, this is Agent Kaitlyn Urran," Hotch introduced as he shut the door behind Spencer, the last to enter the room. "She's an FBI linguist doing some research for a book on the BAU. She may help us out a little on our cases, and she's brought one with her from California."

"It's nice to meet you all," Kaitlyn smiled, brightly as she stepped around the table with an outstretched hand. "I've already met Agents Rossi, Garcia and Hotchner. I'm glad to meet the rest of the team so soon."

She shook their hands, starting with Derek as they told her their names and ending with Spencer. After shaking his hand, Kaitlyn continued grinning at him as he stared at her, and she lifted a hand to tuck a piece of stray hair behind her ear.

"Since you've brought this case for us, why don't you conduct the briefing?" Hotch suggested, breaking the trance Spencer and Kaitlyn seemed to be in, and she nodded, her grin shrinking to a sweet smile as she headed to the front of the room, the rest of the team taking their places around the table.

"Got some drool on your chin, kid," Derek joked as he sat next to Spencer who shot his wide-eyed gaze at the man before giving him a slight glare and looking away to watch Kaitlyn hurriedly gather some papers into her hands.

"Alright," Kaitlyn sighed, shaking her side-swept bangs from her vision and looking to each face around her as she began explaining the case. "In the last few weeks there have been three women found on three different beaches in San Diego. Tatiana York, Valerie Xavier and Jasmine Steale, all with dyed hair and all dressed in the same type of white dress."

She turned to the screen behind her and clicked the remote to show pictures of the crime scene as the team started flipping through the files in front of them. The pictures showed the women in white sundresses lying in the sand, their arms at their sides, stretched out in the sand, but something was obviously similar in each of the pictures.

"Their wrists had ligature marks from being bound, and he chose to dye their hair red," Kaitlyn explained. "There are some defense wounds on the hands, and traces of skin in their teeth. They didn't go without a fight. Bruises and contusions around the legs suggest the victims were raped and it was proven by autopsy."

"Look at the way the hands are positioned," Emily immediately pointed out, examining one of the photos. "They're facing upwards. They were obviously posed that way."

"And why would he dress them in white?" Spencer wondered. "White is most commonly viewed as the color of purity, but he raped his victims."

"And why dye their hair?" Derek brainstormed as well.

"Red hair is an important color to him," Hotch chimed in before looking to Kaitlyn and asking, "What were the victim's natural hair colors?"

"All blonde," Kaitlyn replied, promptly pressing a button on the remote to change the pictures on the screen to photos of the victims when they were alive.

"Easy to dye red," JJ observed.

"The first victim was twenty, the next was twenty-two and this last one was twenty-five," she added.

"Our flight leaves in an hour," Hotch announced, standing and still holding onto the file. "We'll finish brainstorming there. Garcia, I want you to check up on any missing persons reports were filled in the past three weeks in San Diego. Also, get some aerial views of the crime scenes."

"On it, Sir," she nodded as everyone else stood and Kaitlyn began gathering her things while the team started heading out of the room.

"You did a good job with that," Hotch complimented as Kaitlyn pulled her papers closer and smiled brilliantly at him.

"Thank you, Sir," she nodded as the two headed toward the door. "I don't think I have to tell you how nervous I am. I mean, I'm a linguist. The closest I've gotten to a dead body are those pictures."

"Hopefully you won't have to see any in person," he sympathized. "But if we get any more bodies, just let anything you feel hit you there and then. If you need a minute, take it and move on."

"I hope I don't have to take that advice, Sir," she agreed as he held the door open for her. "I'll get my stuff together as quickly as I can, Sir."

"We have an hour," he reminded her and before she walked away completely he added, "I think you'll fit in here, Miss Urran."

"Call me Kate," she smiled over her shoulder, still walking. "And thank you again, Sir."

"Call me Hotch."

A man reserves his true and deepest love not for the species of woman in whose company he finds himself electrified and enkindled, but for that one in whose company he may feel tenderly drowsy

-Editor George Jean Nathan

"These girls were missing for at least two weeks before their bodies were found," Derek noticed as the team sat in the jet headed for San Diego. "He spends time with them."

"A needy sexual sadist," Rossi muttered, flipping through the file.

"He obviously likes red heads," Emily blurted. "Think he dyes their hair before or after he kills them?"

"Before," Spencer voiced. "The dye line around the scalp is almost completely faded." He examined the pictures a little more and voiced, "What I can't figure out is why he dresses them in white dresses. White is a color of purity. He's already raped them, so they're not pure anymore."

"Maybe they are to him," Kaitlyn suddenly brainstormed and all eyes shot to her as she flipped through a file herself, not noticing them staring at her. "I've noticed that even after the crime, rape victims can still have a sort of strange innocence to them. Maybe he saw that? And the way the victims' hair is spread out around their heads like halos, the hands palm-up and slightly spread to the sides…" She held up a picture of one of the victims to examine it a little closer. "It seems like they're angelic to him."

She suddenly felt their eyes on her and she looked up at them with wide eyes darting to each person before swallowing and clearing her throat, a blush coming to her cheeks when she noticed Spencer staring a little too intently at her.

"I-It's just a theory of course," she sputtered. "Just my own ramblings-"

"It's a plausible theory," Hotch interrupted. "It may point to a religious motive."

"Any theories are welcome, no matter how outrageous they may seem," JJ smiled reassuringly and Kaitlyn nodded with a smile as well, glancing to Spencer who was still staring at her.

"Garcia should have results for us when we get to San Diego," Hotch explained. "We'll have more to work with when we get there in a half hour. Rossi, Emily, Derek, I want you to take Kaitlyn to the crime scene with you. JJ, Reid, and I will go to the local police station." He nodded to Kaitlyn, saying, "Nice work, Kate."

"Thanks, Hotch," she smiled with a nod before looking back at the file, sitting in a seat facing into the plane, Spencer next to her as the rest of the team closed the file and turned to relaxing. Spencer cleared his throat as he glanced at Kaitlyn, shifting to sit closer to her, cautiously but she didn't look up from the file.

"You probably shouldn't look over it too much," he suggested, making her look up at him with wide, emerald eyes. He swallowed when their gazes met before hesitantly continuing, "If you concentrate on it too much it could crowd your subconscious and keep you from taking in any other information that might be useful."

Kaitlyn glanced at the file before closing it and smiling at Spencer with a nod, saying, "Thanks for the advice. I just wanted to memorize the details for my book."

"What format are you using for your book, if you don't mind me asking?" he wondered as Kaitlyn turned to rummage through her book bag which sat between them.

"I'm writing it as I go, while it's still fresh in my mind," she explained, pulling out a notebook. "I do it that way instead of an outline. I just touch it up later."

"First person?" he wondered as she opened the notebook and he shifted a little closer to look at what she had so far.

"Yes," Kaitlyn nodded, clicking her mechanical pencil and beginning to write. "I find it has a bit more impact when I write it in first person for the reader. They get to be injected into the material."

"Have you written other books?"

"Under pseudonyms," she nodded, still writing.

"Anything I might have read?" he asked, and neither one of them noticed Emily and Derek looking at them in amused curiosity.

Kaitlyn gave a small frown of thought as she lifted her head from writing and leaned back, Spencer still looking at her expectantly before she replied, "I don't know. They're nothing like this one. They're science fiction." She looked at him and smiled, "Read any sci-fi lately?"

"Actually, I just finished a book called The Reality of Illusion by Karylin Rutan," Spencer began.

"Really?" Kaitlyn smiled knowingly, leaning a little closer to him. "Was it any good?"

"Actually, it was really interesting to think that two people can be connected through dreams and fall in love through them. I don't really believe in dream analysis, but the twist on it was…Why are you looking at me that?"

"Put Karylin Rutan and Kaitlyn Urran side-by-side in your mind," she smiled as he frowned in wonder then did what she asked and soon looked at her with wide eyes as he sat up a little straighter and she gave a small giggle.

"You're Karylin Rutan," he breathed and she gave a big nod, still smiling.

"I have to admit, that name is cooler than my actual name," she frowned slightly before smiling again and shifting closer to ask, "So you really thought it was good?"

"I did," he nodded. "Scientifically it could never happen, but it was enjoyable reading."

"Hence the genre, science fiction," she smiled, sweetly. "How long did it take you to read?"

"Twenty minutes," Spencer nodded and Kaitlyn's eyes shot wide at him in absolute shock making Emily and Derek snicker as they watched the scene unfold and drew their attention for a moment before they looked back at each other.

"It took you twenty minutes to read my book…cover to cover?" Kaitlyn asked, still in astonishment.

"You haven't figured out by now that he's a genius?" Emily finally chimed in as Derek chuckled, reading over a magazine while Kaitlyn and Spencer turned to the brunette.

"That's obvious," she smiled at Emily before looking at Spencer and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Rossi told me you had three PhDs. You have to be a genius to have three of those, right?"

"I guess," Spencer replied, hesitantly and changed the subject by asking, "Your book really was good. It's one of my favorite books."

"I'm flattered," Kaitlyn smiled, now twirling the piece of hair she'd tucked behind her ear. "I've never met a fan."

Spencer cleared his throat and gave a tight smile before pulling his briefcase onto his lap and opened it to flip through the papers in it, making Kaitlyn giggle as he fumbled through his actions. She decided to get back to her book, still smiling as she sat forward and began writing.

Emily and Derek watched the two sit for a moment before Kaitlyn gave a small sigh and sat up straight, catching Spencer's attention but she didn't notice him look at her as she pulled the rubber band from her hair to let her ponytail down. The two watching them held back their chuckles as Kaitlyn shook her red hair out a bit while Spencer stared at her, swallowing hard when she leaned over her notebook to write again. He quickly looked back to what he was looking or in his briefcase when she glanced at him, and smiled while Emily and Derek shook their heads.

This was going to be fun to watch.

A/N: if i get stuff wrong, i'm sorry, i try my best. anywhos...reviews?