Setting: July 17, 2017

Spencer Reid collapsed on the hotel room bed, for once not caring to mill over the folders of case files in his satchel. He pulled his credentials out of his pocket, eyeing the young man in the photograph. He looked so young, carefree. It really hadn't been that long ago, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Reinstatement to the Bureau still felt like a dream as much as Mexico had felt like a nightmare. His brain was determined to deny both realities.

He squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head to dispel the memories of the last hotel room he'd been in. In some ways he was desperate to remember, so desperate in fact that he'd been on his way to another hypnotherapy session when Rossi had intercepted him. It was a blessing. Rossi (the whole team) had stressed that point over and over again. Once he remembered, he would never forget and some bones were best left buried. So he'd spent his time with his mom at her new facility, taking J.J.'s kids to the zoo (that hadn't gone over so well), basically anything to keep his mind off of - them. Any of them. Lindsey (or whatever her name was), Wilkins, especially Cat. Wilkins and Lindsey may have been the perpetrators but they never would have done anything without her - her and that poor damned to Hell child she was caring.

The child, the poor kid was going to be raised by drug cartels and mobsters. The kid was never going to have a chance, not even a snow ball's chance in Hell of becoming a decent person. J.J. had told him, Rossi, everyone, even Morgan had told him to drop it, but he hadn't. If only the poor kid could grow up away from...this. Never hear his name, or hers...never come after him for revenge on her behest. Such was his (rational) fear, that he had inquired as to what would happen to the baby. Maybe he could find a couple in the Bureau who wanted to adopt. Someone who would know about the case for security but with no emotional connection...but that had been a bust. Mothers in prison had very few rights, but choosing who had custody of the baby was one of them.

He sighed as he picked through the case files, determined to focus on a problem he could actually potentially solve, but even that didn't give his stressed brain any relief. Two Jane Dos, mutilated, raped and decomposed. Heads and hands chopped off so no ID, wounds were post-mortem and the mutilation was so crude that they couldn't be certain that it wasn't caused by animals. Problem with that theory was the public dump site. Why mutilate a body beyond recognition, then put it on display? The decomposition was so severe that there wasn't even an obvious time of death. Well the team certainly had their work cut out for them. What a way to end a six month leave?

A knock on the door gave him a brief reprieve from the depression staring him in the face.

"Who is it?" Never again would he simply open a hotel room door.

"Detective Garrison, Detroit PD."

He opened the door, expecting to be given a new set of case files and a team just behind him, but the only person there was another local and they did not look happy at all. "Can I help you?"

"Spencer Reid?"

"Yes."

"Put your hands where I can see them."

Were those handcuffs in his hand? "I don't -"

Such was his shock, that Reid didn't even bother to struggle as his hands were wrenched behind his back.

"Dr. Spencer Reid, you are under arrest!"

*** SIX HUNDRED MILES AWAY ***

Catherine Adams smiled, a victorious smile that was not often to be seen in the frozen hell of FCI Waseca's solitary confinement cells, but today was special.

IT IS DONE

Such a simple, yet profound message. She sat her aching back on her cold hard cot, marveling at the bold red print on the crisp white paper. She would have to find some way to have this 'framed'. "You hear that, Maeve?" She stroked her bulging belly. "We've got Daddy right where he belongs."

Her twisted smile grew as she remembered her last meeting with Spency. 'Watch me.' Those were the last words he'd spoken to her before attempting to walk out of their lives forever. He may have won the battles, but she was about to win the war.

"No, Spency, you watch ME!"