'Gideon…Sophie…Sophie Gideon!' I looked up from the case file in front of me to see Morgan crouching down in front of me. 'Nice to have you back with us, we've landed.' The cabin had emptied at some point without me noticing.

'Sorry, my mind was somewhere else.' Moving to get my stuff together, I tried to squeeze past Derek to get my carry-on but his hand had wrapped around the top of my arm.

'Is your mind going to be here on the case?'

'Are you questioning my ability?' I could not help but automatically on the defensive. I had been fine, hadn't I?

'Calm it tiger, not like you have to ask but of course I'm not. I am questioning your ability to handle other things. You may think you have people fouled but I see how seem to go on to autopilot in the company of a certain someone.'

'I will be fine, I have been up until now.'

'But before now there was six of us, now it is just you, me and pretty boy. You are going to have to work with him instead of just beside him.'

'I am fine…don't Morgan, I know you think you are helping with your little pep talk but things will be just fine. Reid made it perfectly clear where he stands, we are work partners and that is how it is. That is what is for the best.'

Derek moved out of my way, shaking his head. 'You know, for a couple of geniuses you both are clueless.'

'Officer Mike, these are Agents Reid and Gideon and I'm Agent Morgan. We are here from the BAU. What you got for us?'

'You agents getting' younger or am I just gettin' older?' Mike seemed to give us all the once over before leading us to an office near the back of the precinct. 'Victim is Lacy Turner, aged 26, she was found at 6:45 this morning in the park next to a kids playground. Guy was out talking his dog for a walk after a night shift and called it in. Poor bastard, guy didn't stop throwing up until his stomach was empty, and then some.'

'What do you know so far about Lacy?' asked Reid

'Some of the guys are looking into it right now. All we have on her so far is her name and that she was a student in Colorado College. We managed to contact her family, they are travelling in from Florida as we speak.'

'Is it possible to see the body?'

'Yeh, I can take you guys to it right now if you want?'

'Sophie, why don't you go with Mike while Reid and I go and track down some people at the college that might have known Lucy.'

As Mike and I turned to leave I heard Reid whisper, 'I think I would rather go see…'

'It's okay Reid, I think you are better sticking with me on this one.'

REID'S POV

'Why didn't you let Sophie come with you? You know she is better people our age than I am.' Morgan focused on the road ahead, as we headed back to the police station. 'I over-heard your talk with Sophie on the plane, I was coming back to see what was taking you guys so long and I heard what you said.'

'First off, you did just fine. Secondly we both know you have not only been avoiding being alone with Sophie. And we both know you have been doing it to avoid hearing me tell you what an asshole you are being.'

'We are work partners; that is how it must be.'

'Listen up pretty boy and listen good, you guys are making yourselves miserable and everyone else is noticing it. You both think you are hiding it so well. The day you went missing, Sophie was beside herself. She blamed herself for letting you go. We found you because of her.'

'Are you saying that you think I owe her?'

'No, not at all. What I am saying is that for some reason that girl had feelings for you. She obviously still does, and you obviously have feelings for her. You said it yourself when you were in hospital. As you lay there holding her hand you told her you wanted to be more than work partners. You should have seen the look on her face. Then next time you speak to her you tell her that you didn't mean it! What the hell were you thinking?'

I had seen her face, I had seen it changed from delight to worry. 'I was thinking rationally. She would never have been able to work with the team if there was anything between us. And being in a relationship would only impede our ability to work effectively.' Even more so if either of us had got hurt. Something that was a very probable outcome.

'Bullshit and you know it! Don't try and lie to me Reid. I can see something has changed in you and so can everyone else. You were a bumbling idiot sometimes but you were part of the team. But now you are shutting yourself off from everyone. You do your job but you are not there. You need to fix this Reid.'

'If you want me to be more involved then why didn't you just say that instead of insulting me?'

Morgan let out a sound of exasperation, 'I am not insulting you, I'm just telling you how it is. You better get things sorted or I am going to have to knock some sense into you.'

I had been under the impression that everything was fine but I was obviously wrong. I had wanted to save myself and Sophie before anyone got hurt. What I had not taken into account was the effect it would have on my ability to function as part of our team. Even now, six months later I still felt the wave of awe I did when I saw Sophie. She was nothing like anyone I had ever met, so confident, smart and headstrong yet somewhat vulnerable at the same time. She walked around with sense of self-assurance without being arrogant. Her piercing blue eyes seemed to take in everything. I couldn't help the feeling of longing I felt when she sat curled up in her seat, playing with her curls as she read. I had wanted to run my hands through them as I pulled her into my arms and apologise for being such a fool.

But I was not being a fool. I was doing what was right, what had to be done. I was thinking of Sophie by trying not to see her in that way. Feelings were just chemical, they would fade over time. What I did not understand was why they seemed to becoming more difficult to manage.

We could hear the sound of Sophie laughing before we could see her. 'Seriously though, I was struggling with it but I never thought I would see a fully grown man faint.'

'You reached inside a women's stomach, that is sort of disgusting,' replied JJ from the laptop placed in the middle of the table.

Sophie looked up to see us walk in, only a hint of laughter remaining on her face. 'Looks the guys are here, we can go ahead and compare notes.'

'Okay then, what have you guys found out about Lucy Turner?'

Derek moved to stand behind where Sophie was sitting and I followed suit, careful not to stand too close. 'Lucy was a student at Colorado College, she was last seen at 11pm the night before her body was found heading to her room in the dorm by one of her dorm mates. She was quiet, kept to herself, had a few friends and kept good grades. Nicole Williams was a classmate and good friend of hers, she had said that Lucy had been spending a lot of time on some virtual world website so I have Garcia looking into it. Her parents should be hard within the next hour or two.'

'The medical examiner found no drugs or alcohol in her system. There was bruising around her neck to suggest that she was strangled and the rest of the wounds were post mortem. Her face and genital area had been severely mutilated. Her stomach was sliced open and a note was pushed inside. It reads 'The Juwes are the Men that Will not be blamed for nothing.''

'Jack the Ripper?' Sophie tensed ever so slightly when I spoke.

'Exactly, it is the same as the message that was supposedly written on the walls in the case of Catherine Eddowes in London in 1888. The wounds on the victim seem to be somewhat similar to Lucy's.'

Hotch had been nodding the whole time, 'Lucy seems to be the female version of our male victim. He was a student at the University of Texas, kept to himself, was a dedicated online gamer. We have Garcia tracking his activities leading up to his death. No one had seen him after class at 5pm. His wounds were focused on his face and lower abdomen and we found the same note in a piece of paper placed in his mouth.'

'What doesn't make sense though is if these are copycat killings, why did the en-sub chose a male victim?'

'We have no idea Derek but I think we have to do some more digging before we can figure that out.'

'Okay, we will do some more searching and we will get back to you.'

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