Spencer Reid returned to his loft apartment in a daze. The earlier case the unit had to handle had been a tough one for Reid; the Unsubs had been two young males, one white and one black who had indulged in the voyeuristic killings of eight young teenage females. The black male watched and video taped the murders while his white counterpart committed them. The two males had been best friends for years who had been subjected to cruel treatment from posh girls who would not give them the time of day but would always find bigger more alpha-like males to harm the smaller yet smarter ones.

Reid had felt empathy for the young males. They were very smart kids. He could not help but feel like those girls got what they deserved. The killings were recent; the young men had had their reasons and did it to let other students around the world know that nerds can and will fight back. Reid remembered his days in school, getting constantly picked on and harassed by the more popular demographic. He was never like the jocks, the preps, or the popular kids. He was a lanky genius who couldn't make friends for the life of him. That was until he joined the B.A.U.

He stared at the ceiling for the longest time hoping something could get him out of his rut until he smelled smoke. Reid hopped out of his chair in an instant and ran to his kitchen. Nothing. Then he looked all around his flat and saw nothing out of the ordinary. That is when he noticed smoke had started coming out of his apartments vents.

"Shit!" he exclaimed harshly. The smoke was now billowing into his apartment, he started coughing raggedly. Then he heard a loud banging at his door. He ran to open it quickly. It was one of his neighbors from an adjacent apartment.

"They are evacuating the building! You need to get the hell out of here!" the older man shouted.

"W-what the hell happened?" Reid yelled back.

"Fire! How it started, I dunno! GET OUT!" the older man said before bolting down the stairs.

Reid could not believe this was happening. His books, his clothes, his livelihood was all here, now covered in black smoke. He grabbed his car keys, his phone and his favorite messenger bag and ran out the door, shut it and locked it. Why, he did not know.

Once outside he caught his breathe and saw all the other tenants angrily discuss how the fire started. Reid was starting to worry, the fire was bigger then he thought. The apartment two floors above his was ablaze; the fire was an odd pinkish red hue. Chemicals, Reid thought. My books, he thought sadly, please let them be okay. He had the collection for years and a few were extremely rare. But then he thought of his pictures of him and his mother when he was young. Dammit, he wanted his stuff to be okay. Tears started to well in his eyes. He felt so helpless.

Reid made a quick phone call. The phone was ringing but no answer.

"C'mon Derek,.." Reid pleaded. Then suddenly silence.

"Hey Reid, what's up?" Derek Morgan said in an all too smooth manner. "I'm a little busy tonight, youngster."

"My apartments' on fire!" Reid blurted out quickly.

"Woah, hold on, what?"

"Derek please, I don't know what to do! I'm freaking out really bad, my books! What's gonna happen to my books?"

Morgan heard the hurt in his voice and felt his own heart clench at his pain and dropped everything he was doing, including the girl he was out on a date with.

"Gotta go sweet thing, something came up." He said abruptly while putting on his jacket, left money on the table, gave the girl a kiss on the cheek and ran out the restaurant. She said something as he left, but all he could think about was Reid's safety.

~~~~ xxxxx ~~~~

Morgan drove quickly towards the line of ambulances and firetrucks and parked his SUV away from the chaos. The fire was out of control, pouring into several floors in the building. Onlookers screaming and shouting, upset that they were losing their homes. He had to find Reid.

"Reid!" He called loudly. Looking over the onlookers and the building that was furiously engulfed in flames slowly collapsing. He started to panic. Where was Spencer?

"REID!" He called once more.

Then he heard some commotion going on with the onlookers and safety personnel. He heard the young agent yelling.

"Reid what's going on?" Morgan said grabbing his friends' arm pulling him away from the apparently angry crowd.

"I wanted to go get some of my books! They're rare Morgan!" Reid said with a menacing look on his face. He looked crazed and angry his clothes reflecting the harsh environment in which he had escaped.

"You can't go in there sir!" said a concerned firefighter who Reid was arguing with to get his things.

"Morgan, the girl who lives in that apartment was cooking dyes for her clothes and fucking left to go to a party in another town. We have gas stoves here!" he spat.

"If you go in there, I'm coming in with you," yelled a middle age woman. "My family's heirlooms are in there!"

"Morgan that stuff is all I got. Please!" Reid was becoming hysterical. It hurt Morgan to see his friend so distraught. He needed to get him away from this place.

"Reid, we got to go. That stuff isn't worth your life and you know that." he said still holding Reid's arm.

"I-I know, but m-my mother's pictures...they're in there..." he said shakily as his face crumpled. Morgan pulled him away from the crowd and held him as he started crying. His legs gave way as he cried loudly in Morgan's arms.

Morgan had never felt more useless than he did at this moment.