Sabor by Stefanie Gomez

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds, all characters are property of CBS and their affilliates, this is my humble h'omage to their genius.

A/N: This story is set in San Jose, California my home town. A few things, the police station is actually on Mission Street but I had to centrally locate it for purposes of the story. As far as Reid's living situation, I don't think there's cannon on this subject, where the heck does he live? If I'm wrong please let me know, but there was some google maps research done on this story, just so you know. So I figured he would live close to work, next to public transportation. Being he's so logical and all.

Pairings: S. Reid/Other Character

Chapter 1

The air is crisp and fresh in downtown San Jose, capital of Silicon Valley. A couple is walking through Plaza de Cesar Chavez, the famous Fairmont Hotel is just across the street and the twinkle lights shine in the clear cool night. Traffic is starting to thin as people make their way home to the outer lying city where the homes aren't stacked upon each other like they are down here. Maria waves good bye to Soccoro. "Cuida te!" she tells her friend as she walks out of the Fairmont from a long and tiring shift of making beds and cleaning up after los ricos. Those people with money who never look at you twice and are embarrassed if they do, she sometimes felt sorry for them. Some of them looked so sad sometimes. Those women who came here for work conferences but had no one to call back home when the work was done, like Miss Johnson today, she had made sure to put an extra chocolate on her pillow, she had seen that she had candy wrappers from the mini bar, those were so expensive, so Maria had left a king size bar from the machine in the break room so she wouldn't have to dip into the over priced junk in the fridge.

It was only three light rail stops home for Maria, but she would never make it. She was waiting for the train to arrive; it was running late tonight so she decided to get a quick drink at one of the little stands that are always next to the light rail. "Mrs. Munoz how was work?" asked the attendant. He was a happy man who loved talking to people. "Oh, pos you know Randy, trabajo, work is a lot of work!" They had this little exchange at least once a week. "Okay I see you soon." Maria said in her accented English.

She turned back to the light rail station, she never saw the man run towards her. She only felt the hand on her mouth and suddenly being weightless. Before she knew she was doing so, she kicked and tried to scream, then a horrible pain erupted in her chest and she felt warm liquid spurt everywhere. The pain was white hot, she could feel the blade in her skin, but it didn't register, by some miracle she faded away before the horror of what had happened to her set in. The last thing she saw was his face and those cold unfeeling eyes boring into her. The man wrapped her body in a painting canvass, put her in the van, he drove the four blocks to the station house and dropped her on the steps like a badly wrapped present. This one would definitely get her attention.

Sophia Segura was sitting down to a dinner of truck tacos and jamica at her desk in the make shift office in the SJPD station. She had grown up here her whole life, a chubby short Mexican girl who grew up into a curvaceous woman. She had only moved to "the city" as they called it to be next to work, two murders and she was having to beg for resources, she was going to need help on this one. Before she could pick up the phone to Quantico. "Agent Segura?" one of the uniforms called after her, she had been lost in thought trying to come up with a connection between the victims, the hotels and was trying in vain to get the images of the slain women out of her head for just a moment. "Agent Segura?"

"Sorry, yes officer?"

"I think you'd better come see this. It's happened again."

Her heart dropping into her stomach knowing, that he didn't mean the printer had jammed. She ran out the door and down the steps, right there, the bastard had left the body right there on Santa Clara Street, right in front of the station the killer had left a ghastly present for her. She grabbed her gloves and carefully peeled back the canvass, he'd done it again. There was this poor woman, stabbed, beaten, raped and they had carved the words "return to sender" into her chest. If she hadn't been determined before, now it was war.

* * *

Reid was sitting in his apartment watching a Star Trek marathon when his cell phone rang. "Hey Morgan."

"Hey kid, come meet me down at Command Post over on Potomac, I've got someone I want you to meet."

"Morgan, I don't know…"

"Come on kid, you have something better to do than meet someone, like what watching a Star Trek marathon?" Reid was more than somewhat disturbed by his on the nose prediction.

"I'll be there in thirty." He said resigning himself to the inevitably awkward night ahead of him.

"That's my boy." Morgan hung up before he could say anything else. Every time any one had tried to set him up, it had been a disaster, he never knew what to say, or he said way too much, he worked with the worst killers known to human kind all day, every day and he had a hard time making small talk that didn't involved victomology or m/o's or random cursed himself for agreeing to meet Morgan, but it was better than sitting at home alone, or at least he hoped it would be.

After showering and a quick shave, he headed out the door to the Amtrak station and prepared for whatever Morgan had in store, his stomach tying itself into uncomfortable knots the whole way there. He was running a little late but as he entered the boisterous bar no one, especially Morgan seemed to notice his late arrival; Derek was busy playing a drinking game with three blonde women at a table. Reid took a deep breath and started walking toward them, Morgan caught site of him and motioned enthusiastically for him to join them.

"Hey kid! Come meet Mindy! Mindy, this is Dr. Spencer Reid, he's a certifiable genius and an FBI agent." Morgan made him sound like a cross between Stephen Hawkin and Rambo. The girl was what you would call gifted in a physical way, there was no denying she was beautiful with golden hair that reminded him of JJ and he couldn't help but notice she was more than a little top heavy, most likely surgery, he wondered if he should tell her the statistics on silicone leakage, then immediately thought better of it. "Hi, I'm Mindy. Derek tells me you guys catch serial killers, isn't that scary?" Reid's mind raced a million miles a minute with statistics on serials killers, m/o's and apprehension rates but all that came out was. "Yeah, it can be. Sometimes."

Mindy who was an aerobics instructor and extreme sports enthusiast and didn't seem to register his discomfort with the opposite sex. She told him all about her job, the latest gossip on people he didn't know and told him all about her most recent base jumping trip. He had no idea what to say so he fell back on old habits. "Did you know that the main chute will fail to deploy correctly about 0.1% of the time. That is, about 1 time every 1000 jumps. The second chute is slightly more reliable, perhaps failing 1 time every 2000 or more uses although this number is harder to estimate accurately: reserve chutes don't need to be deployed that often." Reid immediately realized the chilling effect this had on the conversation. "I'm going to get another drink, did you want one?"

"Um, no thank you, I'm not much of a drinker." He stared at his Coke.

"You don't say." Mindy walked toward the bar and he never saw her again.

"What happened? She seemed totally into you?" Morgan was asking from over the head of a girl who Reid didn't recognize.

"Morgan she jumped off buildings for fun, she invited me to go sky diving;don't you know any one who isn't interested in statistical suicide?"

"You mean like ones that watch Star Trek on Friday nights?" Morgan teased.

"I'm heading home, have fun." Reid turned to go. Morgan was motioning for the red head to wait for him. Morgan had just caught up with Reid when both their phones went off. A text from JJ, all it said was "Got a case, get here ASAP." Neither one of them needed to ask where "here" was. "Come on kid, we'll ride in together. Just let me go say bye to Tina." In 10 minutes they had pulled into the FBI parking garage and headed toward the elevators.

JJ was already making her way toward the bull pen, hair in a pony tail, jeans and t-shirt on, clearly someone had woken her up from bed. Reid noticed how motherhood agreed with her, she had never lost that glow, he was happy for her and was so proud to be Henry's godfather but it would be a lie to say he still didn't care about her but it was changing into something he could almost handle. "How'd you guys get here so quick?" JJ asked. "We would have been here sooner, if Morgan hadn't stopped to tell Tina goodbye." A very smug Reid teased. JJ just smiled. "Hotch is on his way, Rossi is stuck in Colorado, snow storm. Garcia and Prentiss are on their way. We're going to have to leave tonight, Northern California, San Jose so pack light sweaters in your go bag." She rushed off to take the phone call in her office.

"Sorry JJ, you know I wouldn't call this favor in, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. This guy is blatant, and we need all the help we can get." Sophia sounded like she hadn't slept in days, because she hadn't. "You know I could never say no to you, and I think our team can really help on this one, sounds like he has a ritual." JJ tried to reassure her old academy friend, they hadn't been in touch for over four years, their careers always taking center stage. "I'll have someone to meet you at the airport, what's your ETA?" Sophia had an entourage of uniforms waiting to escort the BAU team to the station. "We should be there in three hours." JJ said matter of factly.

"You got a flight that quick?" Sophia said unbelieving of her friend's resourcefulness.

"We have our own jet." JJ smiled as she said it.

"Now I'm jealous, I'll have breakfast ready, none of you are vegetarians right?" Sophie asked like it was a communicable disease.

"No, all carnivores here." JJ laughed

JJ picked up the files Sophie had sent her, and walked toward the conference room. The pictures were horrendous and all she could think about was how those women died in terror. Hotch was sitting down business like, and polished, JJ wondered if he slept in his Clark Kent uniform of suit and tie."Less than four ago, agent Sophia Segura out of the San Francisco field office called us in on what is now three murder cases of undocumented workers in San Jose, California about 50 miles south of S.F. All the victims worked in high end hotels in the downtown area. The unsub beat, raped and stabbed all three women." JJ flipped the slide and there was Maria Munoz the latest victim with the writing carved deep into her chest. "Helena Gomez was abducted last seen leaving work through the service entrance of the Montgomery Hotel. Maricella Lopez was last seen leaving her night shift at the Marriott; all three women have been delivered to the SJPD station steps with this carved into their chest."

"Return to sender." Reid looked baffled, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Agent Segura thinks it's a racial slur, there has been an active and aggressive white supremacy group that has popped up in San Jose over the past few years. They've rounded up the usual suspects but can't link the group to the murders so far. The murders started September 15th, the beginning of Hispanic Heritage month" JJ said with a sad look in her eyes as she looked at Maria's lifeless body splayed on the screen.

"This guy is obviously a racist or someone who wants to makes us think he is. The time it would take to make carvings this deep, he assaulted her after she was dead, small miracles. JJ it says here that the bodies were all dumped in front of the police station?" Prentiss asked.

"The latest one was addressed directly to Agent Segura, whoever the unsub is, knows who is working the case and that the FBI is involved. She's taken it quite personally. She's an old friend from the academy, and a brilliant agent, has a PHD is psychology and consults for the bureau on cultural and sociological barriers between victims and law enforcement.." JJ couldn't help but be proud of her friend, they had after all just been two really green young women when entering the academy together.

"This guy has killed three different women who worked in hotels in the downtown area, and risks transporting a body to the police station with cameras everywhere, that's a whole lot of confidence or a whole lot of stupid." Morgan observed.

"Well those aren't mutually exclusive qualities. JJ why aren't there any missing persons reports for these women, it says they all had wedding rings and family pictures in their purses?" Reid had noticed that none of the women's families had been contacted, they couldn't be found according to the case files.

Hotch answered "These women were undocumented, it would have been in their best interest to reveal as little information as possible to their employers, probably using fake addresses, socials and would have taught their children not to talk to authority figures, where these women come from the police are just one more thing to be afraid of. Garcia take a look at the camera footage, see if you can find any identifying markers on the man. Any suspicious vehicles, get delivery schedules to and from that precinct, visitor logs, everything this guy didn't just become invisible all of a sudden.."

Garcia nodded her head. "This scum bucket can't hide from the all seeing Goddess of technospace.

"Wheels up in 20 guys." Hotch walked out of the room to let his sister in law know he wasn't coming to get Jack tonight.

The team was on board in 15, everyone seemed to want to catch this guy, the combination of the level of violence and the blatant stupidity of his cause seemed to inflame the passions of the whole team. Reid tried to sleep but he couldn't stop looking at Maria Munoz, her eyes were still open, and somewhere her family was missing her and were too scared to ask for help. He stared off into the night sky, which seemed infinite as they headed west. The jet touched down at 1am Pacific time. The tarmac was surpisingly busy as such a late hour.

"JJ! You guys got here fast, remind me to requisition one of those sometime." A shorter, full figured woman called out. Reid noticed she had large dark curls that weren't from a curling iron, she wore fitted jeans and a button down white shirt with a black sweater vest. He was wearing the same outfit, he noted this in the back of his mind.

"Sophie, Please tell me you have breakfast waiting, I'm starved." JJ said and she reached out to hug her old friend.

"You know I wouldn't leave my amiga hanging I figured I'd get some caffeine in all of you, I had the diner set up breakfast at the station.." Sophie had the three uniforms with her, pull out the Starbucks trays, filled with mochas, lattes, and hot chocolate.

JJ made the introductions. "Dr. Sophia Segura this is SSA Hotchner, SSA Prentiss, SSA Morgan and Dr. Spencer Reid."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all, I know you're working on no sleep and you just flew 3,000 miles, so let's get some food in you and get you settled." Sophia silently noted she was dressed exactly like the skinny gringo, she didn't know what to think about that.

They all headed toward the standard bureau issue Surburbans. Reid went mad for a moment and decided he would take a chance. "Doctor, JJ says you work with law enforcement agencies and victims who are less than forthcoming, do you think you could give me some insight on what these women were like? What was life like for them, it will be essential to a cohesive victomology profile." Reid waited for the strange look, for the feeling of alienation that came with any of his attempts at making contact with the opposite sex, he waited with baited breath, for her to answer. " Sophia, just Sophia not Doctor please, and these women statistically are from various regions in Mexico, they come here by way of coyotes, human smugglers who charge exorbiatant amounts of money for horrible traveling conditions and sometimes have the audacity to rape the women in their care and charge them extra for it, they've learned to talk to no one and trust fewer than that. They come here for what everyone does, a chance at a better life, a chance for survival, they risk drowning, dehydration, starvation and armed boarder agents just to so they can go to work everyday to earn less than anyone else and clean our homes, make our beds and maybe give their children a better life. These women were hard workers who paid taxes, cared for their children and knew they had no protection under the law. Their families are probably worried sick that they've been deported or arrested and that's why they haven't come forward. Come on you and JJ are with me. My mother would kill me if she found out I didn't get some food in you guys soon, we'll discuss it over breakfast."

When she spoke Reid couldn't stop looking at her eyes, they were a deep dark honey brown with gold flecks in them and when she spoke you could hear and seen the passion and empathy for these women and their situation. She jumped into the drivers seat of the suv and proceeded to give a whole new meaning to "dangerous curves." Reid could feel his heart rate elevate every time she glanced in the rear view at him or to check her mirrors, he couldn't tell which though he found himself secretly hoping it was the former.