"Love sought is good, but given unsought is better," Reid quoted from Shakespears play Twelfth Night.
"Nice to see that you're quoting Shakespeare Reid, but we have a crime to solve," Emily Prentiss said.
Reid turned his gaze from looking out the jet window to staring at Emily, who was sitting at a seat across from him.
"Thinking about something Reid?" Morgan said while walking in with JJ and Hotch.
"Nothing, let's just go over the case," Reid insisted, shifting his position a bit to face Hotch.
"Alright, so five males,25-33, were discovered last week in Barstow," Hotch explained.
"The same locations?" Reid asked.
"No, five different locations and look at these pictures."
Reid took the folder from Hotch and opened it. A picture of a male around the age of 25 had a bullet shot shoulder and 5 stabs wounds in the abdomen. "That's weird."
"What's weird Reid?" JJ asked.
"There's an X mark engraved to the left of his chest near the heart," Reid said, pointing to the X on the chest.
"Whoever did this probably wasn't violent at all with him."
"But, how come?" Morgan asked puzzled.
"Well, you see, the unsub probably knew him, therefore not going rough. May I ask where his body was found?," Reid asked looking firmly at Hotch. "In the motel bathtub." Hotch said.
"The bathtub had a decent amount of his blood in it." he continued.
"That means the unsub must have left him to bleed to death while they had time to get away," Emily explained.
JJ looked at Emily. "So, if he bled to death the unsub probably knew what area to cut so he would bleed out fast and die quicker," JJ said.
"Exactly," Emily agreed.
"Maybe that's why there's an X on his chest. It's near the hearts nerves," Reid said.
"They knew what they were doing and they've had practice," Morgan said while taking out another picture from a different file.
"This is 28 year old Alex Waltserd, had multiple stab wounds to the chest,two bullets shot to his knees and the same X near his chest," Morgan said, handing Reid the photo.
Just then Rossi came out from the wash room. "Any idea about our unsub?" He asked. "Who are we dealing with?" He asked.
Hotch looked at Morgan. Morgan turned to Rossi. "We're dealing with a smart ass unsub."
When they landed in Barstow, they went to the police station to confirm their arrival. "Hey, detective Hotch and his BAU team," Detective Daniel greeted them with open arms.
"Glad you made it safe."
"I'm glad of that as well," Hotch said. "Come this way," Daniels' insisted and turned around to start walking to the conference room.
"Alex Waltserd,Kelly Dennis,Ryan Marcus,David Delly and Zack Parie. All from little,old Barstow, where nothing like this has happened for a long time," Daniels' explained.
"How long are we talking?" Reid asked. Daniels' turned to Reid.
"Two years ago, but we caught the unsub."
"Name by any chance?" Reid asked.
"Kirk Tovas,43,died in prison just a couple of months ago," Daniels' explained.
Reid looked at Daniels' for awhile, but then looked down at his lap and back up again. "Is there a connection at all?"
"I highly doubt it, but there is a connection with the suspects," Daniels' said, "all victims are male,25-40,have an X near their heart and were intoxicated before death," He explained.
"Wait,hold up, the unsub is intoxicating them before death?" Emily asked.
"I guess so, not really sure," Daniel said, puzzled himself. Just then something caught his eye. Everyone else turned to see the direction he was staring at. It was a female about 25. She had long curly brunette hair,she was wearing a blue top with a light brown cardigan.
"Who's that?" Reid asked Daniel.
"That's Olivia Startford. Beauty ain't she?" Daniel said.
"Yeah," Reid said in a whisper of some sort. Morgan heard and started to snicker.
"Looks like that's your first case over there Reid," Morgan whispered to him. Reid looked at him and then looked through the glass window at Olivia. Seemed as if she was crying and in distress.
"What's wrong with her?" Reid asked puzzled.
"One of the victims,Alex Waltserd,was her fiancée," Daniels' said.
"Go comfort her for now Reid, she's been through a lot it seems," Morgan insisted. "Alright," Reid said.
He got out of his seat and walked out the conference room door. Olivia's' back was turned toward Reid, so she didn't see him approaching her. "Umm ,Miss Startford," Reid said while tapping her shoulder.
Olivia turned around quickly with her hand against her heart. She had tears down her face,leaky mascara and puffy red eyes.
"Didn't mean to scare you," Reid said sort of startled himself by how scared she looked.
"Who are you?" She asked removing her hand from her chest and relaxing a bit.
"Dr. Spencer Reid," he said with a smile and a hand held out to shake her hand. Olivia looked at him and then at his hand. She had a little smile on.
"Don't think you would fancy shaking someone's hand which is full with tears and mascara," she said while showing Reid her palms and she was right. Both hands were drenched in tears and mascara stains.
"Doesn't matter," he said with a smile and took her hand to shake it. Her smile faded and she started to cry a bit. Reid looked at her with concern and he was sort of worried that he had done something wrong.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Alex's hand would have felt this alive if he was still alive," she managed to say and then started to full out cry.
In that moment, Reid didn't know what got into him, but he hugged her. A random stranger that just lost her significant other in such a terrible way. He hugged her and she buried her head against his shoulder.
'She's really adaptable' Reid thought.
Reid breathed in. "You smell nice," he said, but then realized what he just said to someone he just met. He blushed a bit.
"Aha, thank you," she said through tears.
Reid smiled. 'I'm not awkward after all' he thought. After awhile he let go of her. They looked at each other and Reid smiled, which made her smile.
"Want to talk?" He asked.
Olivia sniffled. "Of course," she said with a smile and then they both walked over to a table for two.
"Who knew Reid was such a ladies man," Morgan joked while watching them through the window.
"Don't let him get attached," Hotch said to Morgan.
"Don't worry, he's a smart kid," Morgan said. "He won't go for her."