Part 1 - Faith

They who go Feel not the pain of parting; it is they Who stay behind that suffer.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Chapter 01
Week 01

"Where's Reid?" Morgan asked.

JJ looked up from her computer and looked around the bullpen. "I don't know." She said. There was no tall, skinny profiler to be seen, no bag on his in box and no mug of coffee. "Looks like he's not in yet."

"He's never late." Morgan replied.

"He has been a couple of times."

"Huh." Morgan wandered into Garcia's lair. "Hey babygirl, can you ping Reid's phone for me?"

"Why, isn't he here?"

"No, he's not in yet. I want to make sure he's okay."

"What are you going to do if he's at a girl's house?" Garcia teased, even as she was turning to type.

"Have a little celebration. It's been over a year since Maeve died, it's time he got back on that horse."

"Some guys have trouble getting over stuff." Garcia nodded to the map. "No girl unfortunately; he's at Georgetown, specifically in the faculty parking lot. Maybe he had a lecture this morning."

"Then why isn't he answering his phone?" Morgan tried again, this time on speaker, and after four rings got voicemail. "Okay, fine." He called a different number.

"Blake."

"Hey, it's Morgan. Where are you?"

"Georgetown. I have my lecture this morning."

"Is Reid with you?"

"No, why?"

"His phone is in the parking lot but he's not answering. Can you go check?"

"Yeah, I know where he parks. I'll call you back."

"Do you think something's wrong?" Garcia asked.

Morgan sighed. It wouldn't be the first time someone went after the team. "I don't know; I just have a bad feeling."

Ten minutes later Hotch found them. "We have a problem."

They found Blake standing with campus police, setting up a perimeter around a familiar old blue Volvo. "We did a joint presentation last night." She told everyone as they came up. "He stayed behind to talk to Dr. Nagley; I've already got a call in for him to come talk to us. This is where he was parked last night; it looks like it hasn't moved. And then there's this." She pointed to the front seat.

They leaned in to look. There on the front seat was Reid's phone and the familiar leather folder that contained his badge. And on the floor in the passenger's seat they saw his bag. "He wouldn't leave those behind." Morgan said.

"I'm just glad he changed out of his contacts before the lecture last night." Blake replied. She nodded to the masses of pink blossoms on the cherry trees. "He said the pollen was bothering his eyes."

"Hotch." They turned to see JJ pointing up at the light pole, "Security cameras."

"Good. Call Garcia."

Rossi and Morgan interviewed Dr. Nagley. He was the last one to see Reid, but he didn't have much. They had stood in the atrium for about twenty minutes or so, talking about the lecture, and then Reid headed out, Nagley to his office. Nagley hadn't noticed anything off, either around them or with Reid.

The security footage backed up Nagley's story. They watched Reid join Blake on campus, they watched him blinking too much, heading into the bathroom, coming out with glasses on. The university had recorded the lecture for their online library, they could watch the entire thing if they liked. They watched Reid and Blake walk together to the atrium, and then they watched Blake leave while Reid talked to Nagley and then he left as well. They watched him walk across campus to the parking lot.

But they didn't watch him getting into his car. Earlier that day a van from a Johnson Electrical had pulled into the lot. Two men with caps pulled low to shield their faces and tool bags in hand got out and started methodically disabling each of the cameras. "This wasn't random." Hotch said. "This is an organized team. They were after Reid specifically."

"But why?" Blake wanted to know.

"That's what we have to find out." Hotch replied.

"I looked up Johnson Electrical." Garcia told them. "It's all fake, the address, the phone number, the license, all of it. And I ran the plates; they were stolen two months ago."

"Very well organized," Blake muttered.

JJ came into the room. "Will just called, DC metro got word of a white van on fire out in Buzzard Point. They were able to get the plates."

"Let me guess." Rossi said, "Stolen." He looked back at the group. "These guys are covering all the bases."

"Isn't the National Defense University down there?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, but also the concrete plant, a lot of construction yards. Will said there were no cameras in the area."

"And there's easy access to I295 from there." Hotch added. "They're well out of the city by now."

Strauss had crept in the back. "Could someone be targeting the team again?"

"Too soon to tell," Hotch replied, "But security details just in case. Let's start with his current cases and see if anyone sounds familiar. Hopefully they'll contact us and we'll learn more."

They went out to the bullpen and got to work.

But they weren't contacted at all on that first day.

Eventually they were all drooping from exhaustion. Morgan braved the fortress and insisted that Garcia let him take her home. "No." She told him. "I can't."

"You need to, momma." He told her. "You're not up to your best any more. We're not going to do anything for him tonight."

"But he's out there, Morgan!" She insisted. "He could be hurt or cold or hungry or really getting hurt or…or…" She started to hyperventilate a little.

"Hey. Hey. Now we're talking about Reid, all right. He's strong. Hell, he might be the strongest of all of us. If I know him he can survive one night. Now come on, we'll get a good sleep and a decent breakfast and we'll find him tomorrow."

They weren't contacted on the second day. Or on the third day.

On the third day they ran out of potential threats from case files and accepted the fact that they had to go digging into the private life of their most private friend. They started with his academic career, looking at colleagues, students, people in and around his university life. They interviewed Nagley again, and the security personal from Georgetown, but got nowhere.

On the fourth day Garcia took a deep breath and started looking into Spencer's electronic world, social media, e-mail, financial patterns. They were collectively shocked at how much Bennington was costing him a month. "What happens if he doesn't come back right away?" JJ asked. It had already been far too long

"Don't worry about it." Rossi replied.

"Are you sure?" Hotch asked.

"He can help me with the research for my next book to pay me back."

That afternoon JJ, Blake and Morgan went over to Spencer's apartment. They started digging through everything, carefully, respectfully, but they had to try to find some kind, any kind of a lead. Blake personally took the trunk containing his correspondence with Maeve. "He trusted you with it first." Morgan said, "Although I don't know why he didn't trust the rest of us."

"Because you still tease him like a little brother," she replied.

"Well he is." Morgan said. "At least that's how I feel about him."

"Do your sisters still treat you like that?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because they know I'm an adult." The light went on in Morgan's head. "Maybe I should check that."

"Maybe you should."

They didn't find anything in his apartment anyway.

They weren't contacted that day. Or on the next. Or that first week at all.

.

Note: This story is set one year after 08x12 "Zugzwang". Spoilers for that episode. Also see note at the end of Chapter 4.

This is going to be very, very, VERY angsty. Consider this a warning, bring tissues.