Chapter One

Author's Notes: Written a while back and posted on livejournal. Thought I'd post here too. Enjoy!

"Morgan, wake up!"

Derek was instantly jolted from a dream that evaporated as soon as he opened his eyes. For a moment, he looked blankly around the room, having no idea where he was. Then it all came back to him in a flash. The BAU working a rape-murder case, John calling him from Alabama, telling him about a series of poisoning deaths here- could he possibly help out? Hotch telling him they'd finish up in a day or two, so to go ahead, they'd meet him there the next day. Reid offering to go with him. Arriving to the motel late at night to discover there was only one room left.

"What…?" He scrunched up his eyes, blinked and looked at the time. It was 6.30am. He groaned, sunk his head back down on the pillow.

"Come on, Morgan, it's time to get up."

Reid came to the side of the bed and peered down at him. He was fully dressed. Why was he not surprised?

"Why are you getting me up at this ungodly hour?"

"It's actually beneficial to the body to be up early in the morning-"

Morgan sighed and sat up. One thing he wasn't going to put up with that morning was one of the younger man's lectures.

"Actually, Reid, it isn't beneficial for some people to be up early. Studies have showed that some people's body clocks, especially teenagers, work better with a sleep in. It's actually disadvantaging them to get them up early."

What do you say to that, brainiac?

He could see the young man quickly running this information through his vast mind.

"Yes that's true but in our case-"

Morgan didn't answer. He loped across the room to the shower.

Two minutes later, he screeched and jumped out.

"Reid! You used up all the hot water!" He turned off the tap and stepped out.

"There's no hot water. I had a cold shower also," the young man called from outside the door. "It was rather refreshing."

Morgan shook his head as he towelled himself off.

###

Reid was talking about the intricacies of the plot of a time-travel film he'd seen, as it related to real quantum physics, as they stepped out of the motel. Morgan found himself zoning out, as was usually the case when the younger man carried on. Neither saw the little boy on the tricycle until it was too late. Reid fell straight over him, stumbling forward onto his hands and knees on the footpath.

"Reid! Are you ok?"

The kid started to cry.

"I'm fine, fine it's ok." He shrugged off Morgan's attempts to help him up. A woman rushed over to the bawling boy.

"What happened?" She scooped him up in her arms, looking for any injuries.

"I… fell over him." Reid fumbled. Morgan had to bite the inside of his lip to stop himself from laughing.

"Oh…" The woman looked frazzled. "Well I'm sorry then, I guess."

"Come on, Reid. Let's get something for breakfast."

They ended up finding a small café a block up the road, with a snotty sounding french name. Morgan ordered a croissant and black coffee and sat down. His comrade took a long time before ordering a croissant as well, then joined Morgan at the alfresco table outside, under a red and white striped umbrella.

"So, how do you know this John?" Reid asked, after their drinks and food were brought to them by the portly woman behind the counter.

"John Ferris." Morgan watched, inwardly amused, as Reid turned the sugar bowl upside down and emptied the contents into his coffee. "We go way back. Went to primary school together. He met a girl while overseas, turned out her family lived here. Ended up being Sheriff."

Reid nodded, finally putting the sugar bowl down.

"Careful there, tiger you might actually get some coffee with that sugar." Morgan couldn't resist teasing him.

"And they say someone's been poisoning-"

Morgan waited for him to take a sip before replying. "Cafes."

The young man spat the liquid back into the cup.

"I'm joking Reid." He laughed, sobering himself before continuing. "Someone's been tampering with asprin bottles, from four different pharmacies."

"Different aspirin brands and different pharmacies?"

Morgan nodded.

"So we can rule out extortion and revenge."

They spent the rest of their breakfast discussing the case.

###

John had put on weight since he'd last seen him. A lot of weight.

"Derek!" He grabbed him and squashed him into a bearhug, not seeming to care that they were standing in the middle of a crowded police station. "Great to see you!"

Morgan happily received the hug.

"Great to see you too, man."

They released and John looked at Reid, hovering awkwardly next to Morgan.

"This is Doctor Spencer Reid, my collegue."

John's eyes suddenly lit up. He nodded and took the suddenly outstretched hand. "Good to meet you, Dr. Reid."

They released and Spencer looked down at the ground. John caught Morgan's eyes and raised his brow. Morgan shook his head. Typical. When they were teenagers, John went after anything that moved, not caring whether they were male or female.

"So you guys can help us on this? That would be great, because we've got pretty much the entire town in a panic. One of the victims was Estelle Stevens. She was only eight years old."

"We'll do everything we can." Was all Morgan could reply. "You'll have to give us all the evidence related to the case. We'll also have to go to the victim's houses."

"Sure, anything you need." John shook his head. "Man, it's so good to see you."

"If you like, I'll stay here and look at the evidence." Reid offered. Morgan nodded. Splitting the tasks was usual procedure for the BAU.

"I'll come with you." John nodded at Morgan. "Clarence!" He pointed to a pointy nosed, watery eyed young man. "Give Dr. Reid here anything he requires."

Clarence looked at Spencer and blinked. "Um.. ok, boss."

John waited until they reached the car, before stating what he'd evidentially been dying to say since seeing Reid.

"Morgan, you bastard! Your Dr. Reid there's a real beauty!"

Morgan shook his head, not even bothering to answer. So, John really hadn't changed in the years.

"If I wasn't so desperately in love with Sue…"

"How is Sue?" Morgan asked, climbing into the car, trying to change the conversation. To his relief, John complied. He didn't want to talk about the beauty of another man. Sure, he'd had a few flings when he was a teenager. But this was Reid! Gawky, dorky Reid.

###

The houses of the four victims gave frustratingly little information. They were all different ages and sexes. Morgan returned to the station with John and instantly spied his collegue standing next to a petite blonde, staring at a computer monitor.

Way to go, buddy. He thought.

John looked at him and winked. Morgan shook his head and stepped over to Spencer, who looked up, smiling.

Ok, pretty. Very pretty. Morgan decided. He could admit that. But not… beautiful.

He suddenly found he was staring too long.

"What have you found?"

They moved away from the others, to confer.

"Two hours ago, a woman rang the station. She wanted them to look into the death of her own husband." Reid said. "He died two years ago and she's convinced it's cyanide poisoning." Morgan found himself looking at how Reid's hair curled around his ear. "His official cause of death was a heart attack. She wants to exhume the body and perform another autopsy."

This piqued Morgan's interest. "What's this woman's name?"

"Ah Anne Richards."

"And did her husband, by chance have an insurance policy?"

Reid's dark eyes lit up. "I see where you're going with this."

"How well do you know Anne Richards?" Morgan and Reid stood inside John's orderly, clean office.

"Not too well. They tended to keep to themselves. To think that someone would kill her husband… it makes no sense."

"That's just it. It does, doesn't it? Why would someone die of apparent cyanide poisoning, and then two years later, four more people die?"

John frowned, tapping his fingers on the desk before himself. "What are you saying?"

"Anne Richards took out a life insurance policy on her husband two weeks before he died. The clause stated that if the death was found to be through misadventure, she'd get more money." Spencer explained.

"But it wasn't. The death was officially labelled a heart attack." Morgan finished.

"You mean she…she killed all those people… just to get her husband's case reopened? That's diabolical." Even so, John was reaching for his phone. "I'm going to get her picked up."

###

"Yeah, she confessed." Morgan stood in John's office. He looked across the pen, to where Reid was in intense conversation with said man.

"Good job." Hotch's voice sounded tinny on the other end.

"So I guess there's no point you guys coming over. Me and Reid can catch the next plane back."

"That's going to be a problem. Weather's reporting a blizzard coming into the area. I doubt any plane will come out tonight."

Great, Morgan thought sarcastically. Another night of Reid's statistics.

Across the room, Reid was laughing. John reached out and lightly touched his arm.

"Ok, we'll catch the first one tomorrow morning."

"No rush," Hotch replied in his usual gruffness. "We'll see you soon."

Morgan hung up the phone and opened the door to the office.

"I've never met a genius before." John said, as Morgan approached them.

"It's not all its' cracked up to be." Spencer groaned.

"Hey, Spence."

Spencer blinked at the use of his first name. "Seeing as we've solved the case, why don't we go see that film you were telling me about this morning?"

Anything to get him away from John's lechery.

"Ah… ok…sure…"

###

The film was utterly incomprehensible and dull. Morgan found himself zoning out, thinking about John's focus on Reid. He loved his friend but why did he have to be such a sleaze all the time? Reid wouldn't understand the attentions. Fine, so the genius was pretty, Damned pretty. Some might even say beautiful. Morgan found himself going hot, glad it was in the dark. What the hell was he thinking? He wasn't attracted to Reid!

After what seemed like an eternity, the film ended.

"What did you think?" Reid said, as they stepped outside the cinema.

"To be honest, I found it incredibly dull, I'm sorry Reid."

"Oh, we're back to Reid."

"Huh?"

"You called me Spence earlier."

"I did?" Morgan looked at his watch. He didn't know about the kid but he realised he hadn't had any lunch that day. No wonder his stomach was grumbling.

"Let's get some dinner." He said as they passed a rowdy italian restaurant.

"Sure." The young man said, clearly a little off- balanced.

As soon as they stepped in, a little boy ran, screaming past them. Reid put his hands over his ears, momentarily. Morgan couldn't help but laugh.

"I'm sorry, this place is full." A blond, snooty looking waiter appeared from out of nowhere.

"Oh how long before-?"

The waiter raked his eyes over Morgan's jumper and jeans. "I'd say half an hour."

"Half an hour?"

Damn it.

"Ok, ok fine."

"Morgan?" His companion asked.

"Come one Reid. We're obviously not wanted here. Let's just order some pizza."

###

"Just in time!" Morgan said, watching the snow cascade down the motel window. "I'd hate to be the pizza deliverer."

"Enough to ring and cancel?" Reid asked, smiling. He was lying on his bed, a book before him. Derek couldn't help but smile back.

"Not nearly enough."

Reid laughed and returned to his reading. Morgan continued to look at him. No, not attracted to Reid. This is ridiculous! He walked over to his bed and picked up a book of his own, opened it up and began to read. His eyes began to feel droopy. In a short amount of time, the intercom buzzed, but wasn't answered.

###

"Morgan, wake up!"

Derek was instantly jolted from a dream that evaporated as soon as he opened his eyes.

"What…?" He scrunched up his eyes, blinked and looked at the time. It was 6.30am. He groaned, sunk his head back down on the pillow.

"Come on, Morgan, it's time to get up."

Reid came to the side of the bed and peered down at him. His companion was fully dressed.

"Why are you getting me up at this ungodly hour?"

"It's actually beneficial to the body to be up early in the morning-"

"Damn it, Reid. That's exactly what you said yesterday. I'm not falling for that one again." He grumbled and turned over again, shoving the pillow over his head.

"Ah… are you ok, Morgan?"

"Just give me ten more minutes. Hotch said we'll probably be snowed out, so…"

"Hotch? It's sunny outside, man!"

Morgan peered over his shoulder, scanning Reid's face for the joke. The kid looked to be solemn and Derek knew, from experience, that he was a terrible liar. Frowning, he stepped out of bed and walked towards the window.

What the hell?

The streets were utterly clear, with no sign whatsoever of the coming blizzard of the night before.

"What the-?"

Ok, shower. Shower first. Get your head together. Then you can figure out what's going on.

Two minutes later, he screeched and jumped out of the cubicle.

"Reid! You used up all the hot water!" He turned off the tap.

Damn, man. Twice in a row…

"There's no hot water. I had a cold shower also," the young man called from outside the door. "It was rather refreshing."

Ok, Morgan thought, as he dried himself off. Maybe you dreamt of the snow the night before. An odd, panicky feeling crept over his body. Delusion. Was it possible that he was developing a kind of mental illness? He'd been under stress lately, but no more than normal.

He stepped outside. "Let's get some breakfast."

"Sure." Reid grinned.

There was no history of mental illness in his family, he thought to himself, as both him and the young doctor stepped out of the motel room, locking it. That didn't mean he couldn't be mentally ill, however. Perhaps he could ask Reid. He was, after all, the brainiac.

And say what? "Reid, I don't understand why it's relatively sunny out when last night there was a blizzard."

"And so the alternate time line was actually an alternate, alternate time line, due to the-"

Great, he's going on about something or other.

They stepped out into the palm lined street outside.

"Which is actually very truthful, when it comes to quantum physics."

Wait a second… was Reid talking about the film they saw?
"I've gotta say, Reid. I don't think I quite got the film."

The young man's face lit up. "You mean you saw it? I thought-"

A little boy on a tricycle suddenly flew straight in front of them. Reid fell straight over him, stumbling forward onto his hands and knees on the footpath.

"Damn, it kid. Not again."

The kid started to cry.

A woman rushed over to the bawling boy.

"What happened?" She scooped him up in her arms, looking for any injuries.

"I… fell over him." Reid fumbled.

"What happened is this is the second day in a row your kid's tripped him over."

"Oh…" The woman looked frazzled. "Well I'm sorry then, I guess."

"Come on. Let's get something for breakfast."

"Are you ok, Morgan?" The young man was looking at him with real concern. "You just said this is the second day in a row I've been tripped over."

"Yes, and-?"

"Why did you say that?"

"What do you mean 'why did I say that?' You did stumble over that tricycle coming out of the hotel yesterday, did you not?"

"Morgan…" Reid's eyes widened a little, then he laughed. "Oh, I get it. Strange, but ok. I'll go with it."

They reached the cafe with the snotty sounding french name. Morgan ordered a croissant and black coffee from the portly woman behind the counter.

"What are you talking about, Reid?"

He was starting to feel a little irritated by his companion's elusiveness.

"You're playing some kind of joke."

Morgan shook his head and walked to an alfresco table outside, under a red and white striped umbrella. His comrade took a long time before ordering a croissant as well, then joined him.

"So, how do you know this John?" Reid asked, after their drinks and food were brought to them.

Morgan sighed loudly. "What happened to your brilliant mind overnight? I told you yesterday we were high school friends together."

"Oh, was that on the plane over?" Reid turned the sugar bowl upside down and emptied the contents into his coffee. "And they say someone's been poisoning chemists." He looked up. "What?"

"Ok, what the hell is going on?" Morgan asked.

"What do you mean?"

Morgan considered this. "What day do you think it is?"

A half smile appeared at the corners of Reid's mouth. "Wednesday."

Right. Of course. Only Wednesday was yesterday. What is this, a consipiracy? Don't go there, Derek. Maybe that's it. Maybe this is the first sign of someone who's losing their mind.

"What's wrong?"

"Let's see John."

###

"Derek!" John grabbed him and squashed him into a bearhug, not seeming to care that they were standing in the middle of a crowded police station. "Great to see you!"

Morgan tentatively received the hug.

"Great to see you too, man."

They released and John looked at Reid, hovering awkwardly next to Morgan.

"This is Doctor Spencer Reid, my collegue."

John's eyes suddenly lit up. He nodded and took the suddenly outstretched hand. "Good to meet you, Dr. Reid."

They released and Spencer looked down at the ground. John caught Morgan's eyes and raised his brow. Morgan stared back, utterly baffled.

"So you guys can help us on this? That would be great, because we've got pretty much the entire town in a panic. One of the ones who died was Estelle Stevens. She was only eight years old."

This is… I really don't understand what the hell is going on. Ok, breathe, Morgan. Just breathe.

"The perps name is Annie Richards. She will ring the office later this morning, saying she suspects her husband was another victim of cyanide poisoning two years ago. Anne Richards took out a life insurance policy on her husband two weeks before he died. The clause stated that if the death was found to be through misadventure, she'd get more money."

Both John and Spencer stared back at him as though he'd grown two heads.

"Man, you guys are good!" John said.

"Excuse me. Can I use your phone?" Morgan asked John.

"Sure, come into my office." His friend pointed to the back of the busy police station.

"Morgan, you bastard!" He whispered as soon as they were far enough away from Reid. "Your Dr. Reid there's a real beauty! If I wasn't so desperately in love with Sue…"

Morgan found he couldn't reply.

###

"That's going to be a problem. Weather's reporting a blizzard coming into the area. I doubt any plane will come out tonight." Hotch sounded down the office phone.

A blizzard a second night in a row? What are the chances? But then…

He looked out the blinds. The day was overcast but with no trace of the snow from the night before.

Across the room, Reid was laughing. John reached out and lightly touched his arm.

I've never met a genius before." John said, as Morgan approached them.

"It's not all its' cracked up to be." Spencer groaned.

"Hey, Spence."

Spencer blinked at the use of his first name. "Seeing as we've solved the case, why don't we go see that film you were telling me about this morning?"

Anything to give me some time alone to think.

"Ah… ok…sure…"

The film was a little less comprehensible the second time. Morgan found himself enjoying it a little more. He was starting to find links he hadn't seen the first time. It made sense why Reid liked it. It was a giant puzzle.

"Let's get some dinner." He said as they passed a rowdy Italian restaurant on the way from the film. He wanted to test something.

"Sure." Reid said.

As soon as they stepped in, as if on cue, a little kid ran, screaming past them. Reid put his hands over his ears, momentarily.

"I'm sorry, this place is full." A blond, snooty looking waiter appeared from out of nowhere. The waiter raked his eyes over Morgan's jumper and jeans.

"Half an hour?"

The snooty waiter blinked.

"Come one Reid. We're obviously not wanted here."

Derek waited until they arrived back in the hotel room to speak. Reid instantly sat on his own bed, pulling out a book.

"Reid… I think."

The genius put down the book and regarded him.

"I think I'm-"

I just repeated the same day. Even though it makes absolutely no sense.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

I must be going insane. I must be.

He looked out the window. Snow flakes drifted past the window.

###

"Morgan, wake up!"