A.N. This was started a few weeks ago, before the events of 'Scarecrow', with the intention of it being a two-shot, to counter withdrawal during season 12's Reidless episodes, now postponed (courtesy of the debate and the World Series) until after the holiday hiatus. However, it doesn't look like the story is going to fit into two chapters anyway, so up it goes, earlier than planned. Maybe it will last us until we see our favorite genius back on screen next month. Tara and Luke are still pretty unformed, for me. And the new new guy is just too 'new'. Don't know that we'll see him in this.

Missing

Chapter 1

JJ rushed in, knowing she was late.

If I have to carry one more diorama into that school, I swear…

She dumped her keys on her desk and tucked her go bag underneath, looking around as she did. Reid's cubicle was empty, his chair neatly pushed in and, most remarkable of all, there was no steaming mug of coffee sitting atop his desk.

"Where's Spence?"

Not addressing anyone in particular, though Tara and Luke were seated nearby.

She'd caught her male colleague's attention. Luke looked at Reid's empty desk and simply shrugged.

"Don't know. Haven't seen him yet."

"Tara?"

She shook her head as well. "Sorry. No idea."

JJ sorted out her belongings and started up her computer.

"Hmm. It's not like him to be so late. I hope he's all right."

Luke barely looked away from his email.

"Maybe he took the day off. Doesn't he have something going on?"

"You mean with his mother?"

"Huh? Oh, is that what it is? I guess I haven't been paying that much attention."

JJ smiled at her new co-worker. "I doubt you missed anything. Spence doesn't talk all that much about his personal life."

Not to most people, anyway.

Tara looked up from the file she'd been reviewing. "I've noticed that, too. He's pretty reserved, isn't he?"

"Reid?" Now engaged in the conversation, Luke was surprised to hear someone call Reid 'reserved'. "Isn't he always rambling about something or other, usually at great length?"

His words irked JJ, though she couldn't have said why. But she knew enough to correct the new profiler.

"Spence has a wealth of knowledge, and he gets excited when he can contribute some of it to a case. But none of that is personal."

Tara had been with them long enough to understand. "He feels more comfortable citing facts than he does sharing about himself."

JJ gave her a slow nod. "Something like that."

But, really, it's more like he sees people tune out to his facts, and can't believe they could possibly be interested in him.

She tried texting him and, after ten minutes of no response, she tried calling him as well. The call went to voice mail, on both his home and cell phones. With each failed communication, her level of worry increased. It simply wasn't like Spence to not respond, let alone to shirk a duty.

"I'm going up to talk to Emily. Maybe she knows."

A short detour, and she poked her head into Garcia's lair.

"Hey, PG…"

The flowers in her hair moved in the breeze created as Garcia twirled her chair.

"Good morning, sweet thing. What can I do for you?"

JJ smiled her hello. "Have you seen Spence?"

"Uh-oh. Are we missing our genius?"

JJ shrugged. "I don't know. It just doesn't look like he's here yet, and no one seems to know anything about it. I was on my way to ask Emily, but I thought I'd check in with you first."

"Sorry, love. Haven't heard from him. Maybe that old relic of his finally broke down."

"But he would have called, right? Unless…."

Both women conjured mental images of a crumpled front end, and flashing lights, and sirens. Reid's not-quite-antique roadster had none of the modern safety features.

Garcia swung herself back around, typing even as she spoke. "Go check with Emily. I'll work my magic here."

JJ hurried down the hall with more urgency in her step. Emily's door was, as usual, open, the new unit chief turned toward the window, on her phone. JJ knocked lightly on the jamb to gain her friend's attention. Emily turned, held up a finger in abeyance, and then quickly ended her call.

"Sorry, I know. Is everybody waiting?"

Obviously assuming this was about her late arrival to the morning meeting.

"No, but I can tell them you're ready. Except that we're missing one of us."

Emily looked her confusion, prompting JJ to continue.

"Spence isn't here. I came up to ask if you knew where he was. Did he need to take time off?"

Any 'need' would most likely have to do with his mother. Last year, he'd withheld Diana's downturn from the team, until JJ had pried it out of him. Afterward, she'd exacted a promise from him, that he would remember who the rest of his family was, and allow them to help him carry his burdens.

Emily's brows were furrowed now, equally as dark but not at heavy as those of her predecessor. Tangentially, JJ wondered if they were part of the unit chief job description.

"He didn't say anything to me. I take it you've tried calling him already?"

"Home and cell. And texted. He's not responding to anything. Garcia's investigating on her network."

"Is she pinging him?"

"I didn't ask her to, but….it's Garcia. What do you think?"

"I think we'd better go and see what she's found out."

A quick trip down the hall, and they were back at the tech room.

"What have you got, PG?" Emily's voice carried the weight of both authority and concern.

"Well, I know you all count on me not to violate your privacy, so I went with the obvious first. No cell towers down, no power outages, no service providers out. No major accidents on the highways, which is a miracle in itself. A bunch of minor ones, a couple with injuries…."

JJ interrupted. "Did you try…"

"Of course I did, my dear. No one named Spencer Reid has been admitted to the Emergency Department of any of the hospitals that service his route to work. And no John Does, either."

Emily exchanged glances with the two other women, then gestured to Garcia.

"Go ahead. Ping him."

The tech analysts fingers flew over her keyboard. "Pinging…..pinging….ping….uh-oh."

The other two women spoke simultaneously.

"What?"

"His phone is in his apartment."

The unit chief didn't even have to give the order. JJ gave it herself.

"I'm going over there."

But Emily did have an order to add. "Take Alvez with you."

Jennifer Jareau looked like a woman on a mission as she navigated the streets with just a little more speed than was comfortable. From the passenger seat, Luke Alvez queried her.

"Is this how it always is when someone is late to work? Because, if it is, I'd better have a talk with Roxy about the 'stop-and-sniff' routine when we're out for our morning run."

JJ's immediate reaction was to be annoyed, but then she thought about it from her companion's point of view. Reid hardly qualified as a missing person by being an hour late to work. And yet, they knew, each of them, his old teammates…they felt it….something was wrong. Was it intuition? Or something else? Something 'profilable'?

Her fingers tapped impatiently against the steering wheel as they were stopped for a traffic light.

"It's not our usual. If it was, I'd have to have my own unit, just to search for me, ever since Henry was born. It's amazing how much time a little body can tie up. And, as Spence would say, it's exponentially worse with two little bodies. So, no…..we're used to one of us being late, now and then."

"So?"

"So, we're not used to Spence being late. He just never is."

Which wasn't quite true, but she wasn't about to explain it to her new teammate. That time when it had been common for Reid to be late was well in the past, even if it was still fresh in her mind. He'd borne the burden of his addiction, but she'd always felt like she had to share the fact of it with him. She had, after all, left him alone, every bit as much as he'd left her.

"Okay, I can go with that. But you're all acting like it's life-or-death. Why?"

JJ liked Luke Alvez well enough. He was an affable guy, and he fit in well with the team. But, just this minute, she ached to have Morgan back. Morgan would have known. He would have understood.

Hell, he would have led the charge!

Morgan wouldn't have required an explanation about how their resident genius was a trouble magnet. He wouldn't have needed to be told about how Reid always gave someone the benefit of the doubt, even when it might put himself in danger. Morgan would have known that Reid sometimes got lost in his own thoughts, oblivious to the world around him. Oblivious to the potential dangers of that world.

They pulled to the curb just down the street from Reid's building, and JJ took off for it at a sprint. Not having a better plan, Luke followed her as she ran up the stairs to Reid's landing. JJ pulled an object from her pocket, raising the brows of her teammate.

"You have a key to his apartment?"

He didn't know quite what to make of that. JJ was married, he was sure of it. He'd seen pictures on her desk, of her kids and her husband.

Maybe they had a 'thing' before?

JJ didn't have to be a profiler to read the expression on her companion's face.

"It's the emergency key. Spence doesn't have any family….locally….so I have a key. You know, just in case."

Alvez gave a slow nod. "And this would be the 'just in case'."

She shrugged. "It's as good a time as any."

She was 99% certain that he wouldn't answer, but she knocked first. Her mind brought her back to another time when she'd knocked, and he'd not answered, even though he'd been on the other side of the door. The image of him from that time…worn, unshaven, forlorn….rose in her mind, and she wondered.

Could he have flashed back? Did something happen to bring it all crashing back in on him? Or did I miss something else with my best friend?

Remembering how it had felt when he'd not chosen to share Maeve with her. Not the fact of her, not the circumstances. She still carried guilt about any part she'd played in putting that kind of distance between them.

And now, she had to wonder if it had happened again.

Has there been something else in your life that you couldn't share with me? Something wonderful? Something sad? Oh, Spence, I wish we were like we used to be.

They were better…oh, so much better…than they'd been for a long time. But they weren't as they'd once been.

I guess you can't really go back. You can only look in that direction.

She'd given him enough opportunity to answer. This time, she knocked more forcefully.

"Spence! Spencer Reid, if you're in there, please open the door. It's me! It's JJ."

After another twenty seconds of nothing, she put the key into the lock and turned the knob. She gestured to Luke to indicate that he should push the door open while she led the way in, but he waved her off. If it was bad, he didn't want her seeing it first.

There wasn't time to argue, so JJ let him have his way. They exchanged places, and she pushed the door gently in as he made his way past it, weapon drawn.

"FBI!"

Hearing the acronym shouted out as they entered the home of her best friend made for a strange disconnect inside JJ's head. They were treating Spence's place like a crime scene, and she simply couldn't absorb that. She spent a second in silent prayer that it wasn't, before following Luke inside.

JJ took a decidedly less professional approach in calling out.

"Spence! Spence, are you here? Just knock on something, if you can't talk."

Nothing.

Reid's apartment was straightforward. The larger living space was open, with an easy view into the kitchen. Reid was obviously not in either of those spaces. A small hallway gave way to two bedrooms and a bathroom. She started down the hallway cautiously.

"Spence?" More softly now. She toed the door to the guestroom open, moved quickly inside to look at the far side of the bed. Nothing. So she moved back into the hallway, taking a quick look into the bathroom. The shower curtain was pushed aside, giving a clear view of the empty tub.

JJ moved toward the end of the hallway, and Reid's bedroom. She'd only been in it once before, when he'd managed to catch one of Henry's day care bugs, and she'd felt guilty enough to tend to him. This time, she prayed that she would find him ill again, or just dead asleep, and not…

But that room was empty as well, the bed obviously not slept in. JJ holstered her gun and started exploring the space in more detail.

"JJ!"

"I'm back here! End of the hall!"

Luke entered the room, putting his own weapon away as he did.

"He's obviously not here, and it doesn't look like there's any sign of a struggle."

JJ was busy pushing back curtains and lifting pillows.

"His phone has to be here somewhere. Garcia found it with her system, so it has to be on."

Luke studied his colleague, usually much cooler and calmer in the field.

"Uh….can I suggest….why don't you just call it?"

Of course! How stupid!

And she realized just how rattled she was, even as she pushed the number '3' on her phone. Luke took note of the fact that Reid was a rapid dial for JJ.

They both stood silently, listening for a ring tone, or absent that, for the buzz of a vibrating phone. When neither sound presented itself, they moved back into the main living area, and JJ tried again. This time, there was a faint sound, but JJ had to try a third time before they could locate it.

"It's here! It was stuck between the cushions on the sofa." Holding the phone triumphantly.

Luke smiled. "There you go. He probably left and didn't even realize he wasn't carrying it. I'll bet he's already at the BAU."

JJ shook her head as she tapped at the screen of Reid's phone. "Garcia would have told us. He's still….. oh, my God."

She sank to the sofa.

"What? What is it?"

JJ held the screen out toward Luke. "Look."