JJ announced it while hurrying past Morgan's desk: "We've got a case. Briefing room in five." She didn't stop to even look at him, let alone give him a sense of what it might be about. But if the rapid thud of her heels against the carpet as she scurried off was anything to go by, Derek figured he'd be needing his go bag by the end of the day.

He took the chair closest to the door. Emily and Rossi were already in there, waiting for JJ and Hotch to show up. Rossi was writing in the margins of one of his books. He looked bored out of his mind—things in the office had been a little slow the past week, and the older agent had taken to reviewing his bestsellers. Prentiss looked a little more relaxed than usual, and even though three day weekends tended to have that effect on most of the members of the BAU, Morgan didn't fail to notice that she'd changed her hair… and that she was attempting to hide a hickey behind her shirt collar. From across the table, Rossi gave a little wave of acknowledgement. "Happy Monday Morgan. Welcome back to the usual. Except now it looks like there might actually be some work to do."

"Pft. You mean besides the mountain I've got waiting for me on my desk right now?" Morgan groaned good-naturedly. "You know JJ's got some crazy hormonal teenagers in her office right now? I understand we've gotta bring civvies in sometimes but damn, is it distracting."

Rossi looked like he understood what Morgan was hinting at. It was no secret to the team that their coworker was second gendered. "Omega?" he asked lightly.

"Yes." Morgan cracked his neck. "You know there's no pheromones at my house but me and Clooney. Peace and quiet. Man I was getting used to sleeping in."

"Enjoy your time off a little too much?" Prentiss asked.

Morgan raised an eyebrow, considering how much he should tease the woman today. He bit his lip. "Not as much as you apparently."

"Huh?" She looked confused.

"Bangs and a new coffee boy all in two days off?" he joked. When it became clear that Emily didn't understand what he was referring to, Morgan clarified, "The sweater vest from IT that was chatting you up this morning?"

Emily's confused frown melted with understanding, and she looked amused. "What makes you think he's from I.T.?"

"Science and Technology?" he guessed another bureau department instead. "I noticed that you didn't say anything about him not being your new—ahem— 'coffee boy'. Though I have to say I didn't really peg you as the bookish type, not after Agent What's-his-face from counterterrorism," he teased.

Emily fought back a blush, looking almost affronted. "I didn't… have coffee with Agent Marks. That was just—",

"A shot of espresso?" Morgan guessed, eyes crinkling at how easy it was to rile Prentiss before nine AM. He chuckled into another sip of his coffee.

She seemed ready to issue a sharp retort, but at the last second seemed to change her mind, because she stopped arguing and instead smiled at Derek. Her eyes had switched focus to somewhere behind Morgan's seat at the table. "Morgan," she introduced smartly, "I'd like you to meet our new team member: Spencer Reid."

Derek looked coolly over his shoulder, feeling a little bit dumbfounded to see the sweater vest from IT—also apparently known as Spencer—standing in the doorway to the briefing room. Immediately, he knew that this guy must be the omega he'd been sensing since entering the office, and his heart sunk. If pheromones were visible, Spencer would have been lit up like a Christmas tree just then. "Team member?" Morgan asked disbelievingly, "…He's the replacement?" The kid couldn't have weighed more than a buck forty. He couldn't have been older than twenty five, for Christ's sake!

"Twenty three, actually," the kid was saying, evidently in response to a prompt from Rossi and not from mysteriously being able to read Morgan's mind. Rossi gaped at the age, and Prentiss nudged him to shut his jaw. He did. This made Spencer look a great deal less uncomfortable, and he bothered to step into the room a little farther. When Emily pushed out the next conference chair for him, he graciously sat down. "Thank you." He seemed to fidget for a moment, before deciding to neatly fold his hands atop the table. Everyone sat still, and there was an awkward pause between old coworkers and new.

Morgan's nostrils flared. He knew the whites of his eyes must have shrunk and that his head was tilting strangely as he scented the air. It was an automatic response that he couldn't help, and one which he knew gave him away to others as Gen2. It was in his employment files but the bureau didn't require him to announce it to anyone. He'd had to 'come out' to the team once Rossi had figured it out three years in. Morgan knew without a doubt that Spencer Reid had known the moment he'd stepped foot in the room. The young man was sitting there across the table, making eye contact with everyone but Morgan. Eye contact was alpha behavior. Morgan stared him down. From under the table, he felt the tip of a woman's shoe hit his shin. A glance up confirmed that it had been Prentiss, trying to make him snap out of it.

Suddenly aware that he was probably posturing in all sorts of ways, Morgan tried to relax, settling his frame into his chair the way any SinGen person would. "…So kid," Morgan finally broke-in, "Reid, right? What's your background if you don't mind me asking? I don't think I've ever seen you around headquarters." He smirked, "though I don't exactly go over to IT very often." Morgan knew he was being a little standoffish—he could feel Emily's ire from across the table—but he couldn't help it. Something about this guy just… raised his hackles. He suddenly found himself not liking the idea of a new coworker. "Reid?" he asked again.

"It's Dr. Reid, actually," Spencer said firmly, apparently not yet ready to fall prey to the intimidation tactics of the most literal of alpha males in the FBI. "I prefer that over 'Agent'." He finally made eye contact with Morgan, and to his credit he didn't waiver in his stare. But it was obviously forced; a show of bravado. He said, "I'm sure you understand, Agent Morgan."

Morgan puffed out his chest. "It's Supervisory Special Agent Morgan," he corrected. "If you want to go by titles, that is. Around here we're all just our names. Right Rossi?" He let his eyes bore into Spencer, strangely satisfied when the kid finally looked away, baring his neck just the slightest bit instead. Good, something deep in Morgan thought, you're the boss. Let him know it. Still, the other part of Morgan's mind, the part that was less ruled by instinct, thought that this was another clear sign that Spencer Reid, his new coworker, was omega. That was awfully bad news though, and Morgan frowned.

Hotch walked in, followed directly by JJ and Garcia. The latter sat herself down at the table next to Morgan, and he greeted her with an intimate murmur. JJ stood in front of them all and Hotch took the chair nearest the presentation screen. He nodded at JJ to begin.

She clicked the projector on and images of two individuals flashed up onto the screen. There was a boy who looked to be about fifteen, and a girl who was maybe a few years older. Their features made it obvious that they were siblings, the near-black hue of their hair an exact match. It didn't escape any of the agents assembled that the girl was clearly smiling and very pretty, while the boy looked more sedate and awkward.

"The most recent yearbook photos of Shawn and Emma Hastings, of Portland, Maine," JJ explained. "They've been officially missing for forty eight hours, but the parents reported them missing four days ago."

As often was the case, Morgan was the first to take the lead and start asking questions. "Why didn't they issue an amber alert after the first twenty four hours?"

JJ grimaced. "Local Police thought it might be a case of two teenage runaways. They told the family to wait."

"Siblings usually only run away together when there's a history of abuse in the family." Morgan thought of the mother, father, and two teens he'd seen in JJ's office earlier. "Was there any here?"

"It doesn't appear so," she said. "But the family situation is… sticky. Remarried mother, step-father and two step siblings—another teenage boy and girl. The family dynamic seems discordant."

Morgan shrugged. "So how do we know they didn't run away?"

JJ clicked over to another slide, this one of four new individuals, each with photos that had clearly been taken before and after death. "Because," she countered, "they aren't the first brother and sister to disappear from the Portland area." Satisfied by this information, Morgan sat back in his chair to watch and JJ told them all, "These are our possible four additional victims. James and Kelly Copeland, and Noah and Taryn Write. Both pairs of siblings went missing within the last five months. Their bodies were discovered in nearby woods roughly six days after they'd been taken."

"Ah, why did it take the police so long to make the connection?" Spencer asked. Morgan glared across the table at him, irrationally annoyed at the other man for having the nerve to participate in their discussion.

"Victimology is all over the place," JJ said. "The police didn't connect the crimes until this third abduction."

"For which we're running short on time to help," Hotch cut in. He let his eyes swipe over each member of the team. "I've already got Garcia combing over financials and other records to try and find any additional connections between the victims, but until she does, we've been invited in by the Portland P.D. on a four day old abduction. And if it is the same unsub, we know we've only got forty eight hours until he kills again."

The unspoken directive for everyone to take their files and get ready was understood. Chairs rolled back across the carpet. Hotch told them all to get their go bags as he got up. Everybody stood from the table, including Spencer. He looked a little unsure though. "Agent Hotchner?" he asked the retreating man.

Aaron afforded him a rare look of patience, "Yes, Dr. Reid?" Morgan didn't fail to notice how his boss was already addressing the newcomer by his requested title. "What is it?"

"I don't have a go bag," Spencer argued lightly. "I'm not officially supposed to start until Monday…" he trailed off, waiting for confirmation of this fact. Surely, he thought, they wouldn't bring him along on this case? He hadn't even been issued his new ID yet…

But Hotch was immediate in his response. "You're starting early," he informed. "Welcome to the team." He clapped a hand onto Spencer's shoulder, but quickly rescinded it when the younger agent shrunk at the contact. "Morgan and Rossi can help you get a go back together. We're on the jet in thirty." That last was addressed to the entire team, and Hotch hastened from the room with JJ. Spencer was left to stand awkwardly by Morgan and Rossi, both of whom looked at a loss as to what to say to him. Prentiss and Garcia watched the men with interested expressions. Morgan moved first, opting to simply ignore everyone and exit the room. Down the hallway he was quick to arrive at Hotch's door, knocking only once before letting himself in. Hotch looked up from where he was pulling his own duffle out from the desk. "Morgan," he said. "Is there a problem?"

Morgan was aware that his push into the senior agent's office was abrupt, but he didn't care right then. There was currently only one thing on his mind. "This guy can't be on the team, Hotch."

Aaron paused, but then turned to more fully regard his coworker. He seemed to consider his words carefully, before saying, "And why is that?"

Morgan tensed. He knew what Hotch was expecting to hear. And he also knew that he was going to have to admit to the truth of why he didn't want this kid, whom he'd known less than thirty minutes, working with them. Still, Morgan felt embarrassed of the whole situation. "Were you aware that he's omega?" he asked lowly. "This kid?"

"I am aware," Hotch said stiffly. The look he was giving Morgan said: and what of it? "And despite the obvious fact of his age, he goes by Dr. Reid, not 'kid'."

Morgan pulled back almost physically at the rebuttal. He realized then that his boss had expected him to take issue with the new hire for this very reason. He ruffled at the idea. "It's a bad idea to bring him on," Morgan said, trying to sound diplomatic.

"He was the best qualified candidate for the job. I brought him in from the field office in Richmond where, ten months after graduating from the academy, he was heading up the division's efforts at geographical profiling. He's extensively versed on the intersects of psychology and criminology, and he's an expert in statistics. He'll be a valuable member for this team. In what possible way could it be a bad idea to bring him on?"

"You know I'm alpha. You know how hard it is for people like me to work around people like him. Especially in a setting like this, at a job like this. It's inappropriate."

"Inappropriate?" Hotch screwed his face up. "That he should have the same opportunity as you to work for the FBI?"

Morgan grit his teeth. "He does work for the FBI. I'm not gonna stand around and argue about the merit of that, but he doesn't need to be here."

"There are other omegas in the bureau, Morgan."

"Yes! In human resources! Not in the field. Not here," he ground out. "And I know I'm not the only alpha in this division. How fair is it to have him around here every day, distracting us?! It's not even safe."

Hotch shook his head. "I know the situation this puts you in, Morgan, and I'm not trying to make life more difficult for you—"

"Then don't! Hotch he can't do this job," Derek implored. "Omegas are too…"

"Too what?"

Morgan glowered at his boss for making him say it out loud. "You KNOW what."

"What I know is that he has the right to be here. Ten years ago, it would've been you in the same position. Can't you remember how it was when you first started here? And now: people accept you."

Morgan steeled his face not to wince at the very words he was saying, but said them anyway. "Maybe things have progressed a little too far."

Hotch frowned. Solidly. "I'm not about to disqualify him based solely on the fact that it makes you uncomfortable."

'Uncomfortable'?! Morgan already had his mouth open to respond to that severe understatement, when JJ poked her head in the door. "Guys, wheels up in fifteen," she said worriedly. Her eyes flicked back and forth between the two agents, clearly sensing that an uncomfortable discussion was taking place. Slipping fully into the room, she quickly shut the door and asked them directly, "Is this about Agent Reid?"

"It's Dr. Reid," Morgan corrected snottily. Hotch gave him a look for the remark.

"I was just informing Morgan a little more about Agent Reid's new position in the BAU. He had some concerns."

JJ and Morgan shared a knowing look, one which left Hotch feeling like he'd missed something. JJ spoke, "Did you tell him that I was the one who recommended Dr. Reid for the position?"

Morgan's eyes widened. "What?" He looked at her incredulously, seeing that she was being serious. "Why would you do that?" he asked. Sensing Hotch's disapproval of his tone, Morgan stepped closer to the woman to say privately, "JJ you know more than anyone else how impossible it's going to be for me to work around that."

JJ looked abashed. "I've known him a long time. Longer than you. He may be omega but he deserves a chance, Morgan. You can control yourself around him. Be a professional."

Morgan glared. "You wouldn't say that if you were alpha."

"Yeah well…" JJ glanced over to Hotch to see him paying close attention, "I'm not." Her words made Morgan clench his jaw as he considered her, and JJ eventually found that she had to avert her gaze away from the visible anger. Normally she wouldn't allow herself to be intimidated by the man, but it was obvious to the both of them that she had taken a side in this matter, and it wasn't Morgan's. "I'm sorry," she wound up saying despite herself.

"Why? Like you said: you're not alpha. This has no impact on your life. Why should you be sorry?" Morgan's words, while quiet, were laced with disdain. He somehow sounded almost disappointed of JJ, and it made the third person in the room with them wonder if there was more to their relationship than he knew.

"Is there something I need to know?" Hotch asked suspiciously from his stance near the desk. He'd never gotten the feeling that any of his agents were keeping secrets from him, but now he wasn't so sure what to make of Morgan and JJ's odd behavior. Were the two of them sleeping together? If so, Aaron was sure that he didn't want to know about it. Both JJ and Derek shook their heads in answer to his question, looking embarrassed. "Well then I suggest the both of you hurry up and get ready," Hotch said, avoiding further argument. "Morgan you and Rossi need to help Dr. Reid with his go bag. I suggest you do that now."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Morgan complained. "Does it look like we wear the same sized clothes?" Hotch's continuing glare had Morgan sighing in resignation as he walked out of the office. He pushed rudely past JJ and left the both of them behind, feeling incredibly out of control of things and not liking it one bit. "Fine," he muttered under his breath, spotting Spencer across the bullpen. The nerdly man was putzing around Agent Greenaway's old desk, and it pained Morgan to think that it was now probably Reid's desk. He'd have to sit there, everyday, not even twenty feet from a man who was likely going to be nothing but a distraction. Morgan sighed and walked over to help the kid figure out what to pack for the trip.

Morgan was the third team member to make it to the plane, after only Spencer and JJ. He tried not to frown overtly as he saw them already sitting together at the jet's table. They seemed to have been in friendly conversation, but it whittled off as they were made aware of Morgan's presence. Derek had to squash the feeling of annoyance that came at seeing JJ pay attention to Spencer. He took the couch across from them, making himself look both relaxed and bigger at the same time by resting one ankle atop the other knee and splaying his arms out across the back of the couch. Despite this, he radiated animosity and was not able not able to stop himself from saying, "Making friends already?" It sounded childish, even to his own ears, but Morgan forced himself to stare Reid down. He was, in a sense, asserting his dominance over Reid, and Morgan couldn't help but feel a cheap thrill of satisfaction that came when the other agent displayed reciprocal behavior. "JJ's our liaison; she's very adept at offering a helping hand. It's her job here." It was a mean comment on Morgan's part, and he could tell that JJ knew that it was partially aimed at her.

"I know Agent Jareau from the academy," Spencer insisted, the strong will of his words not matching his shrinking posture. "We are friends." He looked briefly at JJ, and the softness that he took on while acknowledging her was disconcerting to Morgan. "Good friends."

'Good friends'? What the hell did that mean? Morgan scoffed, but JJ's direct gaze at him confirmed it. "Yeah," Morgan said, "she told me she basically got you this job." He could see that his words upset JJ, and immediately felt bad about it. What had gotten into him? Was it asshole day or something?

Spencer, however, looked pissed. He forced himself to make eye contact with Morgan—something that his instincts fought and which he was pleased to see had the older agent unnerved. Spencer was no idiot, he could clearly tell that it was upsetting the other Gen2 male that someone like him had been assigned to the team. Agent Morgan seemed to have no problem in being rudely direct to him, so Spencer decided that he would force himself to act the same. He had no intention of becoming the workplace bully's bitch. "Look," he said sharply, "I won't say that I don't know what your problem is, because I do know. But it's your problem, and I'm not going to disappear just because you want me to."

"Is that so?" Morgan challenged.

"Yes. It is." Reid sniffed. "I've had plenty of practice with guys like you; guys who think they can just intimidate their way out of anything. But it won't work now. I earned this job myself, no one got it for me. If you had any idea how hard I had to fight to simply get the promotion that I deserved, you'd stop all your ridiculous posturing and—"

"And what?" Morgan interrupted in a hiss. "And pretend like it isn't a distraction? Like I can't smell the stink of omega all over this plane?"

Reid's eyes burned into his. "Yes."

Just then, Hotch, Rossi and Prentiss boarded the plane. Morgan immediately reigned himself in so as not to get in trouble for his behavior. Reid seemed to pull back into himself as well. JJ just looked relieved that more people had joined them. "Not everyone can so easily stand to be in a room with you," Morgan said quietly, ensuring that only JJ and Spencer would hear him. He looked meaningfully at JJ. "Not all of us have that luxury." JJ bit her lip, looking oddly guilty, and the conversation was cut short by Hotch and Rossi seating themselves at the table. Prentiss joined Morgan on the couch.

"No more coffee jokes," she warned him good-naturedly, knowing that he couldn't possibly suspect her of having an intimate relationship with Reid now. "As far as you're concerned, I drink my coffee alone. Got it, Mister?" Given Reid's presence not six feet away, Morgan could only manage a stiff nod. With a shift of gears the plane began taxiing, and they all waited for the unmistakable feeling of takeoff.

In the air twenty minutes later, Hotch had urged everyone into a discussion of the case. "Let's go over the specifics of the crime again," he told JJ.

Nodding, she recited, "Three possibly related abductions in Portland in the last five months. Three sets of male and female siblings, abducted quietly from their homes, four of the six killed equally quietly after a little less than a week."

"It's hard to take two people at once," Rossi pointed out. "Abductions like this take a great deal of organization, and usually force. Maybe we're looking at more than one unsub? A team?"

Prentiss made a doubtful sound. "I don't know if that's likely. Police found no signs of forced entry or even of a struggle. Two unsubs means twice the opportunity to mess up; alert victims to their presence, leave traces behind. The crime scenes read as if our victim's simply went willingly with their abductor."

"So this unsub had some way of coercing them to go," JJ figured. "He could have been armed."

Hotch shook his head. "Men are more likely to fight in that circumstance. We still would have seen a struggle in at least one of the abductions."

"Okay… he could have had some way to subdue them. One at a time, out of sight of the other," JJ guessed.

Reid nodded. "Highly-organized abductions like this tend to either be professionally-contracted, or else the work of people known to the victims. There's a high probability that our victims knew their abductor, trusted him even."

"In which case it would be easier for him to isolate each victim."

"We're thinking it's a him then?" Morgan questioned.

Reid looked somewhere at the level of Morgan's neck as he confirmed, "Yes. Females rarely execute abductions of anyone over the age of thirteen. With women, the motivation is usually custodial in nature; the abduction of a young child they perceive to be theirs. Our victims are all between the ages of fourteen and twenty one. It's more likely that the unsub saw the siblings as something that didn't belong to him, but which he wanted."

Morgan wanted to grind out to Reid that he already knew the facts about female abductors, that he didn't need an education in criminal behavior, but somehow managed to refrain. "Yeah but what for?" he challenged instead. "Why go through all this time and effort of taking two people, just to murder them six days later?"

Nobody answered, until Reid offered quietly, "He didn't get what he wanted from them." Morgan took a moment to consider just how proficient Reid seemed to be in this analysis. He looked for a reason to fault the other man for that, and found himself coming up blank.

Rossi was referencing one of the papers from his folder. "Cause of death is poisoning. All the recovered bodies had high levels of cyanide in their systems. We should have Garcia contact the M.E.'s office, tell them to go back over the reports to see if any lower levels of sedatives were overlooked. Our killer used chemicals to kill. He could have used them to abduct as well."

"That would explain the lack of a struggle."

Rossi nodded. "Reid, what's the most common method of delivery for cyanide poisoning?"

"Food," Reid immediately stated. Looking over at Rossi's paper he added, "And given levels that high, it's almost guaranteed that they would have gone quickly." He looked pleasantly around at the team, stating, "Cyanide ingestion causes rapid loss of consciousness, followed by convulsions and rapid death. Given the unconsciousness, it would have actually been a very peaceful death."

"Are you kidding me right now?" Morgan snapped. "We don't even know what the unsub did to these victims while he had them. Do you think their last six days of life were 'peaceful'?"

"Morgan, take it easy," Hotch warned. The black man was practically baring his teeth at Reid, and Hotch knew that that level of animosity—whether it came from his Gen2 agents or the regular old SinGen ones—was not helpful on a case like this. "Dr. Reid's observation is valid. The victims were found laid out together, peacefully and respectfully. That could be a sign of remorse. Our killer clearly had the capability to inflict damage on his victims but he chose a gentle death for them. This coupled with the fact that the victims weren't tortured tells us a lot about his motivations." Hotch sat there, waiting for Morgan to settle down and acknowledge the truth of his words.

Morgan focused on pulling himself together. He could feel Prentiss and Rossi staring at him and he felt incredibly embarrassed. It wasn't as if he didn't know how he'd been acting since this morning. He was acting like a brute: forceful, domineering, aggressive. Typical alpha male behavior irrespective of the nature of the situation. Morgan prided himself on being an intelligent, level-headed person, and it unnerved him to think that he could give his coworkers any reason to view him as a stereotype. Omegas may have had more, but Alphas were traditionally associated with their own sets of stigmas, and Morgan had spent years distancing himself from such perceptions within the bureau. He stared at his hands, avoiding another angry look at Reid. One single omega omitted to the BAU and suddenly he was losing it. Morgan ground his teeth at how unfair it all was. "Fine," he forced himself to contribute. "So our unsub clearly isn't a sexual sadist. He cares for the victims. He empathizes with them."

"I agree," JJ ventured, generously taking the focus off of Morgan. "I've spoken with the Hastings family and the local PD is coordinating with the other two families to see if anyone in positions of authority—school teachers, counselors—had overlapping contact with the victims."

Reid shifted in his seat, frowning at the papers in his hands. "I don't think that's the connection. They're too different in age to have shared a teacher. I mean look at these victims," he held up the photos of six people. "James and Kelly Copeland were fourteen and sixteen, white and fair. Shawn and Emma Hastings are the same age and race but they're dark-haired. The Wright siblings were older. Both already in college and they were black. And the Wrights weren't just brother and sister, they were twins." Reid flipped through his pages, reading so rapidly that Morgan couldn't help looking at him askance.

Hotch was slowly agreeing as he scanned his own papers again. "It's true. That's why the local police didn't connect the murders for so long. There's nothing on the surface that is similar about our victims. Not even their living situations or family structure."

"It's highly unusual for an organized serial killer to lack a defined victimology," Reid stated, sounding as if he were reading from a book. "Killers who are emotionally invested in their victims tend to have very specific criteria for who they select. Hair color, sex, age. Less than six percent deviate from a defined type."

"So our killer doesn't care about age or race," Morgan agreed. "What does he care about? What do our victims have in common? The Copelands had other families living on the same street. Families with sons and daughters. The Hastings are a blended family with two other teenagers—a boy and a girl. But they weren't taken. There is something that made the unsub choose these, specific people."

Everyone sat quietly, thinking. Emily was the first to shoot out, "They were obviously all siblings, brother and sister. That's clearly important to our unsub. And in each pair the brother looks ah, um…" she hesitated to make her observation. "Well, less attractive," she finally settled. "I mean look at the sisters. They all appear to be very pretty. They all look well-styled, big smiles. The brothers seem more…"

"Geeky?" JJ supplied with a smirk.

"Introverted," Emily corrected, chancing a look at Spencer. She didn't want to offend her new coworker by judging awkward-looking teenage boys by their looks. It didn't take an FBI profiler to figure out that in all likelihood, Reid had been just such an awkward teenager. "That's a commonality," she concluded.

Hotch nodded thoughtfully. "We should confirm this with the victims' families, but it's a start. What else?"

Morgan shrugged. "They're all from middle class backgrounds."

"They all live… lived, in or very near Portland," Reid pointed out. "Our killer is likely from the area as well. He'd have to be very familiar with the area to successfully incapacitate and move pairs of adolescents without attracting attention."

"Good," Hotch was saying with finality. "This is a good start you guys. Given the time frame, we need to hit the ground running." Just as he said this, the plane could be felt declining sharply in altitude. They'd be landing soon. "After we touch base with the police I want to walk the first two crime scenes. Rossi, Prentiss, you start with the Copeland house and I'll take the Wright twins' townhome." Rossi nodded. "Morgan, Reid, you two look into the most recent abduction. Reid you look more closely into victimology. Morgan, you're the unsub. Get into his mind." Morgan nodded sternly, effectively hiding any displeasure he may have felt at being paired up with Reid so quickly. Hotch finished, "JJ I want you with them to interview the family. See if you gain any insight."

JJ nodded her understanding, and soon the plane had landed and they were shuffling themselves to the waiting pair of SUVs. A representative from the local P.D. was there to greet them, and they were off right away, ready to begin work on a case that already promised to be quite challenging.