Dr Stephanie Matthews thought, as she sat down in front of her desk, that paperwork is the bane of government workers everywhere. She eyed the stacks on her desk with hate. She loved her job and would have given anything to do it without the paper work that constantly plagued her life. She couldn't see the top of her desk anymore, had forgotten what color it was. There were stacks of views to be initialed, death certificates and autopsy reports to sign and send out to be filed, and mail to read. Not to mention the stack of pink message slips she was ignoring.

"Dr Matthews, when am I going to get a portion of your "oh so valuable time," we need to go over your schedule for next week and you have a conference call in ten minutes. Her secretary Katherine, or Kat as she liked to be called stood in the doorway arms crossed and looking extremely put out.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Stephanie? Dr Matthews makes me feel old!" Stephanie said with a smirk.

"Don't change the subject, Stephanie. Kat shot back in a distinctly sarcastic tone, her eyebrows raised in challenge.

"Oh all right, let's get it out of the way and reschedule that conference call; I don't have time for it right now."

"Okay but the academy is going to be pissed." Kat answered.

"Language, Stephanie mocked and laughed when the other woman stuck her tongue out. The academy will wait for me to go to Quantico. I have a class there next week."

"Not to mention a very hot older man to visit. Girl when are you going to introduce me to Derek Morgan he's gorgeous. Kat remained leaning against the door jam her eyes faraway and a sigh on her lips.

"First my personal life is none of your business, Stephanie said primly. Secondly you drool over all the guys on Jason's team especially my very married brother."

Yeah well he's hot, are you sure this married thing took, I mean if it doesn't work out you can let him know I'll "comfort" him." Kat said and laughed merrily at the look on Stephanie's face.

"Good grief the man is barley off his honeymoon and you're wondering if "it took" Stephanie said making quotation marks with her fingers and scowling at Kat.

"Well one has to keep their options open, doesn't one?" She said pulling her fingers through her long blond hair.

Katherine Mason was five feet tall with blue eyes and long hair she usually wore in a pony tail to keep out of the way. She was twenty eight years old and had a new love about once a month. She may have been fickle in her personal life, but she kept the Medical Examiners Office running like a well oiled machine.

"I believe you came in here to complain that I ignore you, so why don't we go over that schedule and then you can get back to work. Stephanie said pointedly but with a smile. She liked Kat; the girl had a good heart underneath her sarcastic nature.

Several hours later Stephanie had cleared her desk and was sorting through the mail she'd nearly reached the bottom of the stack when her cell phone rang. She smiled at the name on the display.

"Hey sweet man, I've missed your voice." She said ginning like an idiot.

"We just saw each other last night, how can you miss my voice?" Gideon asked.

"Because the way you talk to me with that deep voice of your's is a total turn on."

"In that case I should inform you that phone sex is illegal on government phones." Gideon said beginning to chuckle.

Stephanie was glad he couldn't see her blush. "Is that what this is Agent Gideon?" She said coyly running her fingers through her shoulder length brown hair and wishing it was his hands not hers.

"Is that what you want this call to be?" Gideon countered.

"As you say you're speaking from your office and I have a nosy secretary, so why don't we continue the direction of this conversation another time." Stephanie's face was finally returning to its normal color.

"As you wish. Gideon agreed. Dinner at my place, eight o'clock?" Gideon proposed.

"Are you cooking?"

"Yes."

"Then I'll see you then."

Stephanie stuffed her phone in her pocket and got up from her desk. The mail could wait she needed a new outfit for that evening and she knew just where to go to get it. She breezed by Kat's desk and before she could tell her she was leaving Kat said.

"I heard that remark you know." She said pouting.

"What remark was that?" Stephanie asked turning to face her secretary's desk.

"The one about me being nosy."

"It's true isn't it?" Stephanie asked.

"Well yes, but you don't have to spread it around, I have reputation to protect." Kat said grinning up at Stephanie.

"Right well, I'm leaving for the day. Don't call me unless it's absolutely necessary." She turned to leave but Kat's voice followed her to the elevator.

"Have fun on your date, I hope he's a good cook!"

"He is, I will and stop listening to my phone conversations." Stephanie flung back over her shoulder as she got into the elevator.

In her haste to leave she didn't see the last piece of mail on her desk or the State of Kansas Department of Corrections seal on the envelope.

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Reid got up from his desk and went into his wife's office. On some level he still couldn't believe JJ was married to him. He was half afraid it was all a dream and that any moment he would wake up to his loner existence he'd left behind when he'd married her.

She was on the phone when he entered so he stood with his back to the door watching her as she spoke, shifted through paperwork and once pushed a stray lock of her beautiful blond hair behind her ear. He was still coming down for his honeymoon high. They'd hardly left their room for two weeks and even though they had practically lived together for months, he still hadn't gotten his need of her out of his system, he hoped he never would.

"Are you going to stand there staring into space husband or are you going to tell me why your in my office?" Her voice pulled him from his thoughts and he grinned.

"Sorry just thinking about the last two weeks."

JJ blushed and said, "Yeah I've had a hard time concentrating since we got back."

"Me too, why don't I show you just how hard it's been these last three days?"

He was at her side in two long strides and she rose to meet him. He pulled her into his arms his mouth moving hungrily over hers their tongues sliding over one another. He broke off the kiss and said.

"Sorry babe, just needed a fix till it's time to get out of here."

"I'm glad because I was ready to attack you at your desk and that would have been extremely embarrassing for both of us, not to mention what Morgan would say."

"Who cares about Morgan," he said pulling her in for another heated kiss that turned her knees to jelly.

"Watch it, place of employment remember?" JJ reminded him reluctantly.

"Oh yeah, well can we get out of here soon I want to ravish my wife."

Her eyebrows winged up under her bangs and she said. "How can a girl resist a romantic come on like that."

"Oh sorry you want romance, well how about this? Would you do me the honor of joining me for dinner wife, you can decide on the after dinner activities."

"Hmm, I suppose I can pencil you in, as long as you don't get Chinese, I hate Chinese take out."

"Why, may I ask," Reid was intrigued. Everyone liked Chinese take out, didn't they?

"Because you eat lots and lots and then you're hungry an hour later."

"It's that a really bad euphemism for our sex life?" Reid said and ducked away laughing when she tried to smack him.

"Actually he said whether or not you're hungry after Chinese food depends on how you eat it. If you eat it the way rural Chinese do with lots of white rice and low calorie vegetable like bokchoy or broccoli then yes you'd be hungry in an hour, but if you eat it Indian style with beef or chicken in a heavy orange sauce the calories will hold you for awhile. So the feeling of hunger can be all in your head." Reid finished this recitation with out interruption, which was a first for him.

He realized that JJ was staring at him with a peculiar look and he chided himself for boring his wife brainless.

"Sorry babe I guess I got carried away again." He said and was surprised to see the look in her eyes turn to one of greedy lust.

She stepped forward and kissed him hard. Finally she broke off the kiss and whispered. "I love it when you spout useless trivia babe, it's turns me on."

He gaped at her in open mouthed surprise, this was the first time anyone had ever let him finish "spouting useless trivia," let alone tell him it was a turn on.

"This is useful information, but I better leave before the urge to throw you down on the desk overwhelms my good sense." He said turning to the door.

"Don't give me any ideas." JJ said with a saucy smile.

She sat back down and watched her husband leave the room. "God, he has a great body and it's all mine! Cool your jets girl; you still have to put in at least another two hours." Sighing she wished for the laws of time to alter and the hands of the clock to turn faster.

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He pulled the knife from the dead woman's body. She had been no help to him in his search for Stephanie. He didn't want to kill her but had no choice, she'd been in the house when he'd broken in and after he'd questioned her and found that she didn't know Stephanie or where she was, he'd decided to kill her. He didn't want her to call the police and spoil his fun.

He'd been certain this was the house Stephanie had lived in after she went into foster care. He'd kept tabs of her even in prison and knew she'd been in foster care. The parents wanted to adopt her but he wouldn't cooperate, he was her guardian, entrusted to him by his sister. She had ruined that trust, thrown it in his face when she lied about his molesting her. He wasn't a child molester. He loved her. She mistook his attentions and made it sordid and evil. She had to be punished for that. Perhaps he would pay a visit to the Sheriff. He would know where she had gone.

Phillip Matthews left the house squinting at late afternoon sun. No one noticed him and no one would care if they did, he was just an ordinary looking guy. He would find her where ever she'd gone he promised himself as he got into the truck he'd stolen in Topeka two weeks ago. It was time to ditch it and steal another before it was recognized. He pulled out of the drive way and on to the lonely Kansas highway. He would go into Lawrenceville and watch for an opportunity to grab the Sheriff. It would be easy no one recognized him anymore. That was the great thing about spending thirteen years in prison, the way it changed a man, made him invisible to those who knew him best. He turned on the radio singing along with the old country song that played. Yes this was going to be fun and when he found Stephanie he would bask in her screams.