Fic is heavily inspired by "Out of the Mouth" by everything-is-eninalus; if you haven't read it and you're a fan of Reid/Morgan, I suggest you do read it!
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The phone rings and as usual Becca beats Reid to the Pause button on the remote and the Doctor freezes mid-arm movement. Besides, his phone always rings first anyway because he's the senior agent. It's either Hotch or JJ that calls Reid; Morgan or Rossi calls her. Yup, there's her call.
"Taylor?" It's Rossi's voice this time. "We're meeting on the tarmac; wheels up in half an hour. We're going to Kentucky."
Reid clicks his phone off.
"Alright Rossi; see you in a bit."
Removing the blanket, Becca stands and stretches out her back. She watches Reid unfold his lanky body and with practiced ease banishes inappropriate desires from her mind. She's got two months left of her experiment and so far while her results are disliked she has been keeping her mind out of the gutter.
He hands her her go bag as she hands him his coat; the motions having been made more than a two dozen times. Reid would know the exact count. Becca is curious but has never found the courage to ask how many times their hanging out and Doctor Who marathons have been interrupted. Though maybe if she asked it would jolt Reid into realizing just how much time they've spent together. He holds the door open as they exit his apartment, locking it behind them.
They don't even discuss his car, her car, or the subway; it's been her car for over three months now.
She tries to keep herself from enjoying too much the look of Reid in her passenger seat; they're on their way to a case and she must stay focused. Becca shoves her romantic thoughts about her coworker back into the box she tries to keep locked. Focusing on the road, soon they arrive at the BAU building and she parks. Turning off the car, Reid pulls their go bags from the back seat and hands hers over.
Ever the gentleman, he allows her to board the jet first. Hotch and JJ are always there before anyone else and this time Rossi and Callahan are already there as well. So it's just Morgan they're waiting on. Becca and Reid make themselves comfortable and Morgan arrives after a few minutes. After the jet is properly in the air and electronics are allowed again, Garcia's lovely face appears on the communication screen. (Becca has always wondered how the woman manages to look awesome no matter the time. Currently it's almost twelve-thirty at night. In the morning? Whatever.)
"Hello my crime fighters! Today I bring you another terrible beginning of a story." Garcia closes her eyes and breathes deep. "Prepare yourselves friends… This one is going to be the worst of all… If you'll defer to your Tablets and yes Reid, you have paper copies."
Everyone does as directed and it's painfully obvious in what Garcia was warning them about.
"The unsub definitely has a type," Callahan comments.
Becca's eyes blink as she flips through the bloody images while Garcia narrates. "Six couples, each found stabbed well over twenty times each, were found in their homes over the last four months in Somerset, Kentucky. Each wife was of medium build with at least shoulder-length dark red hair. Each husband was tall, lanky and had some shade of brown, curly hair ranging from his ears to his shoulders. All of them were married between seven and ten years, the ages range from thirty-one to forty-five. " Becca flips back and forth through the images and each time she sees her face superimposed on each of the dead wives. It's her body that has been stabbed over and over and over and then dumped in the woods. A chill runs up her spine and –
"Taylor," Hotch's sharp voice cuts into her thoughts. Swallowing, Becca looks up and realizes that the entire team is looking at her. "Can you handle this case?"
She cuts off the terse laugh before it can escape her throat. The higher-ups would never pay for her flight back home if she can't handle the case. Though should she need therapy – and she probably will – an FBI-approved shrink will be supplied. Pushing down the bile rising in her throat, she answers, "I can handle it, Hotch." Snapping her eyes down to her Tablet, she forces herself to study the images. Might as well get used to seeing her face on the mutilated bodies…
Nodding his approval, Hotch turned to the youngest member of the team. "Reid, can you handle this case?"
The resident genius looks up at the team leader, confusion scrawled on his face. "Yes… Why would I have a problem with this case? I understand why Taylor might have trouble, but why me?"
Rossi's eyebrows have never gone so high so fast, Callahan's jaw drops into her lap, JJ's eyes bug wide, Garcia calls him an idiot and Hotch's face never changes. Morgan's reaction is to stand, walk to Reid, and show him the six pictures of the dead husbands side-by-side on the black man's Tablet. "Kid, you don't see the resemblance they have to you?"
"Oh…" He tilts his curly-topped head to the side and squints. "Actually, yes, I see the forty percent resemblance. I am fully capable of distancing myself from the similitude of the victims to myself."
"Good. If either of you find yourself having any trouble, you tell me immediately. Am I understood?"
"Yes sir," the answers are almost simultaneous.
With more hesitation than previously, Garcia continues with the giving of information. "The Somerset police have determined that the unsub likely chooses his victims from a specific area that includes a bar and a club, as all the couples did frequent these establishments. They all live within ten miles of Somerset. The unsub – Oh god this is terrible, I'm going to need a week's worth of puppies and kitties and Callahan can suggest some any time – the unsub usually attacked while the couples were engaged in sex; five of the six were right in the middle of it and the sixth were engaged in foreplay. They were murdered couple number two." Garcia swallows, "Each couple was raped physically and objectly before and after death. Oh my gosh," the blonde fans herself with her puffy-feathered purple pen. "The dumping sites are all in the same woods, all along a side road that isn't commonly used. Reid, they'll have a map and locations ready for you when you all arrive at the station."
"Garcia, I need you to check the national database and see if there are any similar murders. I'm doubting that you'll find anything remotely matching, but we need to rule it out."
"You got it boss. My computers with search as fast as they can and I shall call you if I get a ping."
"Thank you Garcia; we'll call when we need you."
"P.G. out and be safe my heroes!"
No one was surprised when Hotch instructed, "Let's go over victimology."
"While he certainly has a visual type, he crosses social and economic lines," Callahan begins. "One couple is extremely rich, one couple is on the higher end of poor, and the other four couples are spread out in the middle class area. Four of the couples frequently went out while two of them usually didn't. Besides the obvious crossing of the gender line."
"He has a lot of aggression," Morgan comments, "and he has to be strong." His dark eyes look from one female teammate to the other. "No offense to our ladies. But if a guy is going to stab two people over twenty times each," he pauses and his eyes look to Reid for the coming correction.
The black man isn't disappointed as Reid, who already either read the report or counted the number of stab wounds on the victims or probably both, said, "The lowest number of times a victim was stabbed is thirty-one, the highest number is forty-five."
"… Then he's male and he is strong; probably works out or has a labor-intensive job," Morgan finishes.
"He'd have to have a lot of pent-up aggression to do that," Rossi takes his turn. "And a lot of stamina, too. I've cut up meat for about five minutes and it begins to take its toll after a little while. I can't possibly imagine doing it to a human and over forty times."
"He'd have to stalk his victims for at least two weeks to know what the couples' routines were. If he has that kind of patience that means he's probably over thirty but under fifty-five," comes Hotch's voice. "The unsub also has to have a job that allows him to stalk and attack his victims in the evening, as all the victims basically have a nine-to-five job."
"So what we have to do is narrow down which of the victims is his intended target and one is a victim of opportunity or if both taking out both is his goal," JJ observes.
"There's no way either the male or the female is the intended target and the other is an afterthought," Rossi retorts. "It's too much of a coincidence that six couples have the same physical make up. Reid can throw out whatever statistic he wants; the unsub needs the physical appearance to match his fantasy."
A confused look crosses Reid's face at Rossi's mention of his name but he moves on. "The M.E. report says that the male is knocked out first and the female is tied up while still conscious," Reid chimes in.
Yup, no one is surprised he'd finished the report already.
"Take out the threat from the beginning," Becca finally opened her mouth.
Hotch nods.
Reid continues, "The females usually receive between four and nine small cuts to their arms before their throats are cut."
"Probably to torture their husbands," there's a tightness to Hotch's voice and they all know he's trying not to think of Haley and Foyet.
"While the females' lacerations are received after the killing slash, the males are stabbed before being killed," Reid finishes.
"He wants the husbands to feel their wives' pain but he doesn't want the wives to feel the actual pain," Rossi tosses out.
"That's awful," JJ voices the team's thoughts.
"It is," Callahan agrees.
"We need to figure out what set off the unsub," Hotch instructs.
Rossi is tapping his chin with two fingers. "The unsub probably looks like Reid, or has had an altercation with a man who bears the resemblance. Can Garcia do a search on reported incidents based on looks?"
"Hey Rossi, don't go questioning that hot mama! Garcia is a technological genius with her computers. She's better than Reid in that department. I'm sure she can. I'll ask her to start right now," Morgan rebuttals.
The Italian throws his hands up in mock defeat as Morgan dials Garcia.
With small smiles on their faces at Morgan's banter, the team peruses the murder information in silence for the rest of the flight.