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Morgan picked up his red coffee mug with the word "Stud," engraved in gold letters. The mug was a gift from a beautiful lawyer he had met in DC. He would remember that night for the rest of his life. He sipped the coffee and reached for the next file folder on top of his stack.

Reid was the only other person in the bullpen. Morgan could see he was engrossed in his work and not paying attention to anything outside the case he was looking at.

Morgan felt something very sharp sink into his sock just above the shoe he wore. He looked down in shock at the small, midnight black kitten that was attempting to climb up his leg. The cat meowed and Morgan yelped.

"What the hell!" He shouted.

Reid whipped his head up and frowned. His partner had disappeared under his desk. What was the matter with him?

"Where the hell did this come from?"

Morgan popped up from behind his desk and held up the tiny mewling kitten in his large hands. The cat was twisting around, obviously terrified of the large man holding him.

"Hey… Let her go!" Reid cried.

Reid jumped up and charged at Morgan as if he was a dangerous un-sub holding a classroom full of schoolchildren hostage.

"Reid…"

His young partner snatched the crying kitten from his friend's hands and began petting her. He burbled at the tiny creature as though she were a little baby.

"Did the bad scary man hurt you? Don't worry; I won't let him anywhere near you again."

He glared at Morgan as the cat licked his long fingers with great enthusiasm.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Reid ignored Morgan. He took the kitten back to his desk. "You're supposed to stay in my bag." He scolded the kitten shaking a long finger at the little cat.

The kitten batted a paw at the accusing finger as if it was something to play with. Reid grinned and held the cat to his shoulder. It dug its little claws into his shirt and climbed up into the space between his shoulder blade and neck.

Morgan attempted to speak, but found that his mouth wouldn't work due to utter disbelief. He swallowed hard and finally got out the words. "Are you nuts? You can't keep that thing in here."

"She was supposed to stay in my messenger bag." Reid countered while stroking the cat with his left hand.

"I told her to stay put."

Morgan shook his head as if clearing it of water after swimming. "You told the kitten to stay in the bag and you expect it to obey you?"

"Well yeah… You can train cats."

"So," Morgan was attempting not to laugh. "Do you have a litter box in that bag?"

"Of course not… That would be dumb."

Emily and JJ entered the bullpen at that precise moment. "What's going on?" "My man here found us a mascot." Morgan advised JJ.

"What?"

"Oh… How cute," Emily said.

She reached out and scratched the kitten behind its ears. The kitten began to purr like a little steam engine and kneaded its claws deeper into Reid's shirt.

"Where did you find it?" JJ cooed and reached over from the other side of Reid to pet the cat.

"Are you two as nuts as he is?" Morgan asked.

They ignored him in favor of worshipping the cat. Emily gave Reid a smile that made him go pink in the cheeks.

"What's its name?"

"It's a she and her name's Isis."

"Isis!"

"Shut up Morgan," JJ said and Reid beamed at her.

"Where did you get her?"

"I was walking to the train last night. You know it was raining and getting dark. She was huddled in the corner all wet and crying. I couldn't leave her there."

Morgan rolled his eyes and Emily smacked him upside the head. "Leave him alone."

Reid turned his big smile on her as she continued to pet Isis.

"So you had to bring her here today?"

"Bring what," Penelope said, entering the BAU with a huge cup of coffee. "Oh, how cute is that… Where did it come from?"

Garcia stood in front of Reid and reached in to pet the cat that now had three adoring females stroking it. It was purring loud enough to crack the walls. Morgan glared at all of them, while Reid went scarlet from all the second hand attention.

"She's too cute, but I don't think Hotch will let you keep her here." JJ said.

"But I can't leave her all alone in the apartment. What if she gets lonely?'

"Give me a break." Morgan said very loudly over the excited and cooing voices of the women.

Reid glared at his friend just as Hotch walked into the room. "Don't you all have work to do?"

"Um… Hi Hotch," Reid squeaked loudly.

"What is that?"

The girls immediately jumped away from Reid as though he had the plague. "Um… this is Isis," Reid decided his shoes were the most interesting thing in the room.

"Isis!"

"Yeah, she's our new mascot." Morgan smirked.

"Reid!"

"Sir… um I found her in the rain last night. She's so small and I couldn't see her mother so I brought her home and I didn't want to leave her alone."

Rossi walked in with a dark blue coffee mug that said FBI in cold letters on the side. "What's with the cat?"

"Reid brought it home." Morgan smirked.

"Okay…" Rossi continued up to his office while the others looked at anything but Hotch who was glowering at Dr. Reid.

"In my office now, and leave the animal here."

Reid gulped and pulled the cat off his shirt.

"I'll take her," Garcia beat the other girls to the small black kitten.

"Okay… so, um she likes to be scratched behind the ears and don't -"

"Reid!"

The young agent followed Hotch up to his office. He stood to one side of the room as Hotch shut the door hard but did not quite slam it. His boss put his brief case on the desk and sat down. He pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

"Reid… What were you thinking?"

"Well," The younger agent gulped at Hotch's stare. "I didn't want her to be alone. I don't know how long she was on the street all by herself and -"

"Reid… I don't have anything against you having a pet. In fact, it's none of my business. However, you snuck her in here. The rules exist for a reason."

"I know sir. I'm really sorry."

"You're going to have to take her home. Or call someone to pick her up."

"Yes sir!"

"One more question Reid."

"Yes sir!"

"What happened to the Reid effect?"

Reid stared in surprise at Hotch "Um… I think it's gone sir. It was only dogs anyway."

"Go take care of your pet."

"Yes sir!"

Reid left the office, "What were you thinking?" He said to himself. Being spared the gas chamber was less stressful in his opinion.

He knew bringing the cat there was wrong, but he couldn't resist the way the cat mewed at him as he was leaving that morning. The poor little thing had seemed so lonely.

He went back to his desk, but the girls and Isis had disappeared.

"If you're looking for the cat - she's with the girls in the break room."

"Why? "

"I don't know kid. They said something about giving her something to eat."

"They shouldn't give her milk. I should go see because cream is better. Maybe there's something else she can have."

"Have fun," Morgan said absently.

Emily and Garcia were huddled next to a table when Reid rushed in. Isis was lapping up something from a saucer. The speed with which the treat disappeared was amazing.

"What did you give her?" Reid demanded. "You shouldn't give her milk. She might be lactose intolerant. Cream is better for cats because it has more fat and less lactose. Maybe we should go down to the cafeteria and -"

"Hey… She's just fine. We gave her some creamer from your personal stash."

"Oh… Well, um why didn't you say so?"

"You were too busy giving us a lecture on lactose intolerant cats, baby cakes."

"Right, so um, where is JJ?"

"She got a call and took off for the bat cave."

Reid stared at Garcia, "The bat cave?"

"Yeah… That's what we call it." Emily explained.

"Oh… Hotch is furious. I need to take Isis home."

"Let her finish her cream. She's really enjoying it."

Reid came closer and began to pet the silky black kitten as it downed the cream at lightening speed. When she was done, she looked up and gave them a pitiable meow.

"No more for you missy," Garcia scolded.

"Stop talking to the animal like it understands you." Morgan said from the doorway.

"How do you know she doesn't," Garcia challenged him. "You just don't like her because you're a dog owner."

"I don't like it because it just tried to claw my leg off."

"No she didn't," Reid defended the cat that was looking at Morgan with her little back arched.

"What's going on?"

Anderson entered the break room and a big smile popped out on his face. "Hey… I just got a kitten too. Who does it belong to?"

"Me," Reid said proudly while glaring at Morgan stepped closer to the table.

"Really… Did you know that they have cat's milk on the market called Catsip?"

Anderson began stroking the cat. She immediately began to purr. Her back went down and so did the fur that was standing on end.

"No! Where can you get it?" Reid said excitedly.

"At the pet stores, I was just there this morning and I got some cat treats. Can I give some to your cat?"

"Yeah… Her name is Isis."

"A beautiful and appropriate name."

"Isis was a goddess in Egyptian mythology. She was the mother of Horus and the sister-wife of Osiris. She had many titles including Mother of the Gods, Lady of Green Crops, The Brilliant one in the Sky, and the Star of the Sea. She was worshipped as the ideal wife and mother, matron of magic and nature. She was the friend of slaves, sinners the down-trodden, and the rich and prosperous."

"So she's everybody friend," Morgan interrupted getting close to Isis who began to arch her back in anger.

"Morgan…"

"Here're the treats." Anderson pulled a box out from under the cabinets.

He opened the box and removed a couple of treats from the box. Isis took the first one from Emily, pouncing on it as if it was a fat juicy mouse.

Morgan took another one from the box and offered it to the car. She hissed at him, the fur on her arched back stood up and she swiped a tiny paw at him.

"Hey! What did I do?"

"You scared her." Reid pushed his hand away.

"She's the one that clawed me. Why are you taking her side?"

He reached out for the kitten again. He yanked his hand back when she tried to bite the tip of his finger.

"Leave her alone." Reid said angrily.

The cat solved the problem by leaping down off the table and running right between Morgan's feet. She disappeared around the corner just as JJ rushed into the break room.

"We've got a bad one in South Carolina. Hotch wants us on the jet now. I'll brief you in the air."

"But -" Reid frantically looked around the floor for the escape cat.

"Come on Reid… We've got a missing child out there."

"I'll find her!" Garcia pushed Reid out the door. "I'll take care of her for you."

The team hurried off for their go bags while Garcia began to scan the bullpen for the fugitive kitten.

"Where did you get to?"

She headed over to Reid's desk, but the kitten wasn't there. The bullpen was half-full, so she couldn't go check under their desks.

"I'll help," Anderson whispered. "I feel like this is my fault."

Garcia gave him a winning smile as they headed up out of the bullpen together. "It's not your fault. Morgan was the one that scared her. How typical it was for him to make a mess and not clean it up!"

"Don't worry… We'll find her."

"I hope so! I don't want to be Reid if we don't find her. Hotch will be pissed."

"Then we better find her fast!"