Disclaimer: See chapter 1

A/N: Thanks to all who read, reviewed and added the story to their favorites and alerts.

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"I'm just saying," Reid said as Rossi maneuvered their SUV down the highway between Charlottesville and Quantico, "what if she has stumbled on to something? Remember what happened to that other girl Zoe?"

"Look, this has nothing to do with that case," Rossi made a left turn into Quantico.

"How do you know that?" Reid asked as they entered the elevator. "You didn't even give her time to expound on her theories."

The elevator doors opened on the sixth floor. "All I know," Rossi pushed the glass doors open and entered the BAU, "is that we can't have private citizens continually crawling out of the woodwork with cases for us. You do remember that we have to be invited in and I don't think Charlottesville is going to do that on the whim of a college student." Reid had reached his desk and was removing his messenger bag from his shoulder while Rossi carried on to the stairs. "And Reid," he said as he reached the first step, "bringing up Zoe was a low blow."

"What was that about?" Emily asked. She, Morgan and JJ were standing in the bullpen when the pair had arrived.

"Nothing," Reid said, throwing his bag on the floor and plopping unceremoniously into his chair. His leg ached. "They have to stop sending Rossi and me to these things."

The threesome raised their eyebrows and looked back and forth between one another with an expression that said, 'what's up with that.' They kept their observations to themselves however as Reid picked up a file from his desk and started to work. JJ and Morgan returned to their offices while Emily attended to her own files.

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A light knock sounded on Garcia's door. "Enter ye who seeks omnipotence."

"Hi Garcia," Reid poked his head in. "I wondered if you could help me?"

"Penelope's the name, helping's the game. Come on in sugar. How was Charlottesville?"

"It was okay." He paused for a few moments. "Speaking of Charlottesville, I wondered if you could look into any suspicious deaths there, particularly any that had a letter spray painted near the body."

"Sweetness," Garcia said with raised eyebrows, "do you know how strange that sounds?"

"Humor me Garcia. I hope you don't find anything but somehow I think you will."

"Oookay, if that's what you want." She swiveled her chair to face her computers.

"And Garcia," Reid said as the tech's fingers were already moving over her keyboard, "could we keep this between us?" The fingers stopped and she turned to face Reid. "Please," he pleaded.

"Whatever you want honey," she turned back to her keyboard, lost in her electronic world, effectively dismissing him.

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The team had gathered around the table and waited for JJ to begin the briefing. "Newport News thinks they may have a serial killer." She told them while she clicked the remote and the pictures of six women appeared on the screen. "Over the last six months six prostitutes have been found dead in hotel rooms from overdoses of heroin. The needles are still in their arms."

"Why do they think it's a serial?" Rossi inquired. "I mean a lot of addicts turn to prostitution to support their habit. This could just be six women who turned tricks for a dealer to get their product and then overdosed. It happens all the time."

"There were marks on their bodies to indicate they'd been bound." JJ clicked her remote and pictures of ankles and wrists with signs of restraints appeared on the screen.

"I repeat, is that really unusual in the world of prostitution?" Rossi asked.

"You would say that," Reid blurted out in a whisper just loud enough to be heard. "You don't want to take any case unless it meets your standards do you?"

"Reid that's not fair and you know it," Rossi snapped loudly from across the table.

"What I do know," Reid raised his voice as well, "is that people could be dying in Charlottesville and you don't want to do a thing about it."

Hotch's, JJ's, Emily's and Morgan's eyes went back and forth between the two members of the team wondering what was going on.

"That's not true Reid," Rossi replied sternly trying to control his temper.

Reid, on the other hand, was having no such luck with his. "Your indifference already got one girl killed, are you going to make it two?" The young profiler said as he stood and stormed from the room almost bumping into a shocked Garcia as she entered.

The room was eerily silent after the outburst between the two agents and Reid's dramatic departure while the rest of the team looked between one another hoping to find the answer to the sudden animosity their two teammates displayed. "Dave," Hotch finally said. "Would you care to enlighten us on what that was about?"

Rossi began explaining about the seminar the day before and Kayleigh Beresford approaching them afterward with her theory. "She didn't have enough information Hotch. JJ would never present a case that incomplete. What was I supposed to do with it? And we have to be invited in and, as far as I know, Charlottesville doesn't believe it has a serial killer."

"Then why is Reid so passionate about it?" Emily asked.

"This was a pretty girl; believe me," Rossi made the sign for perfect with his thumb and index finger, "a very pretty girl. She said she'd read my books, then she told Reid she'd read his articles and found them very interesting reading." He paused for a moment. "Hell, Reid couldn't even talk for five minutes he was so engrossed in this girl."

"My man," Morgan interjected.

Hotch scowled at Morgan. "So, what Dave," he asked, "you think Reid is thinking with his hormones and not his head?"

"Look, I know Reid doesn't have a lot of experience with women," Rossi said. "Hell, it wouldn't be the first time that a man fell for a pretty face. Attraction can make a man do stupid things. Been there, done that."

"Still, that doesn't excuse his interrupting JJ's presentation the way he did," Hotch said. "I'll have a talk with him."

Garcia stood where she had been when Reid had brushed past her while leaving the room. Her blonde pigtails, today encircled with green bows to match the figure hugging green dress she wore topped with a yellow shrug and matching green glasses, jiggled from side to side as she looked at the papers she carried, then at Hotch and Rossi and finally at the door where she'd last seen Reid.

"What is it Garcia?" Hotch asked curiously.

"Uh…sir…uh…I'm not really suppos…"

"Garcia," Hotch said impatiently.

Okay…I think Reid's hormones may be right?"