When an agent from another part of the FBI asks for the BAU's help, it's a race against the clock to catch this Unsub before he claims another teenage victim. But, all is not as it seems with this case. Reid finds himself drawn to the agent, the team takes notice and wonders if their beloved genius is finally ready to move on after the tragedy with Maeve. But, there will always be bumps in the road...

I included the name of which characters are reading the bookend quotes.

Reid:

"I guess by now I should know enough about loss to realize that you never really stop missing someone-you just learn to live around the huge gaping hole of their absence." -Alyson Noel

Prologue

It had been almost a year since Maeve was murdered. There were still mornings when Reid woke up and the first thing he thought about was her. There were still days when he read her favorite books and remembered her infectious laugh. There were still nights when he felt the dull ache in his heart from where it had been ripped to shreds by a single gun shot. Sometimes, he just hurt.

For the most part, however, Reid's life had returned to normal. He went to work and proved day after day that he was the smartest man in the room. He rattled off statistics and always seem to know the one bit of obscure information that helped the team catch the killer. He still read books and read more newspapers than any normal person would. For all intents and purposes, everything was the way it was before he met Maeve.

But Reid couldn't help but feel down sometimes. He had only ever loved one woman and in the blink of an eye, she was taken from him. What made it worse was the fact that the first time he had ever met her in person was also the last. There were days when he thought that he shouldn't feel this way but then he recalled when Rossi told him that he should grieve as long as he needed to. Rossi's words almost gave him some sort of permission to just completely break down, just for one night.

There was a time, though, when Reid hit a dark point. Right after Maeve's funeral, Reid contemplated using dilaudid again. He just needed a moment where is head was clear and his heart didn't hurt. He craved it more than after being kidnapped and tortured. He craved it more than when he thought Emily was dead. He craved the sweet relief that he knew it would give him. But, in a moment of clarity, he heard Maeve's voice in his head, telling him that this was not the way she would want him to grieve.

The days were getting easier and the nights weren't as hard for Reid. He had been going back to Beltway Clean Cops in order to cope with the cravings. He had been picked up playing the piano again. He knitted more scarves like the one that he wore to the Doctor Who convention that he attended with Garcia. He took up watching foreign and independent films and played more chess.

The team also helped out when they could. JJ would bring Henry over and they would read fairy tales and play board games. Rossi would often times have the whole team over for dinner. He said that he wanted to do something nice for them team, but everyone knew the Rossi was also still grieving the loss of Strauss and wanted the company. Hotch served as his mentor and consistently reminded Reid that his door was always open if he ever needed to talk. Blake would do crossword puzzles with him and they would have competitions to see who could finish first. Morgan and Garcia would have movie nights and invited Reid along. He was never really interested in the movies they watched, but he went so that he wouldn't have to be alone.

Over the past year, Reid had healed quite a bit, but he still had a long road ahead of him. The last few days, however, he wondered if now was a good time to get back out there and see if he could find someone. After all, he knew that Maeve would want him to be happy and not stop his life because she was gone. She would want him to go out there and show the world what a great man he was.

"Easier said than done," Reid thought to himself. He wasn't always the most sociable person and had always been a bit awkward around women he was attracted to.

He thought back to the time when he and Morgan had been in charge of handing out fliers with the sketch of the unsub the were looking for while in a night club. Morgan suggested that he talk to the bartender and Reid didn't know what to do. Morgan told him to use magic to his advantage, and to Reid's surprise, it worked. The memory reminded him of how he loved to talk about magic with Maeve. He knew that she really wasn't interested in magic, but she listened and giggled at his enthusiasm.

Reid heard his phone buzz against he table. He looked to see that he had a text message from Hotch.

"We have a case.
-Hotch"

Things were about to change for the young doctor.

Reid:

"Life must go on; I forget just why." -Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sorry it's so short. The story will really pick up in the next chapter.