AN: Holy Mother of Odin! So many alerts, favorites and five reviews! Waaaaaay more than I have ever expected! Thank you so much for reading my story. I have quite a bit of it sort of planned out in my head. Now, I know when Reid was 24 his hair was "somewhat short" but imagine him with the long Season 5 hair. Let me know if he seems sort of out of character. I'm not really too versed in stats myself. Anyway, I might have to pop up the rating in a few chapters or so, but let's enjoy this ride. :D
-Brittanie
Chapter Two
A New You and BAU
It was 1:37am and Spencer wanted to go to sleep in his own bed. Such a thing sadly would not be possible for whoever long he was undercover. He would be getting a new bed, along with a new life. He already missed his team. When Dr. Spencer Reid arrived at Philadelphia International Airport at 8:06pm, he was how he always was: Nerdy and shy with an air of what some would call an adorable innocence. Agent Sabrina Jackson had picked Spencer up in a small blue four door car. The ride was silent. He did not know this woman and it seemed to him that she had no desire to get to know him. He used this silence to observe the woman next to him. Agent Jackson was clearly a woman that was stuck in a boy's club. Her blonde hair was cropped short, sticking up in spikes on top of her tanned head. Her blue eyes were cold, fixed on the road. Her suit was impeccable and tailored to her muscular body. Her callous hands gripped the steering wheel, every ounce of her control poured into the task of driving. If she had not included her first name in her introduction, Spencer would have thought she was a man, with her deep voice.
In the hours between arriving and 1:37am, Spencer's person felt violated. According to Agent Jackson, Spencer looked weak, not like the type of person that could that take down a killer of four college students. The clothes he was comfortable in were shed for something more his age. He was now clad in a pair of worn jeans with the material missing on his right knee as well as directly below his left butt cheek. He traded in the white dress shirt, vest, and tie for a snug faded black t-shirt and beat up blue flannel which he was instructed to leave open. The only part of his usual wardrobe he was allowed to keep were his socks and shoes. They even made him change his brief in favor of boxers. They tussled his long hair and took away his glasses, giving him contacts. In addition to all this, his ears were throbbing due to the new rings in the bottom of each lobe. He felt like he walked out of a 1990 Nirvana show. And he had a bag of similar clothes next to him to continue the charade. To say the Dr. Spencer Reid hated Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner right now for approving the request for him to go undercover would be a gross understatement. Spencer was livid.
The newly formed Philadelphia BAU team was on its way back from the airport to speak to Spencer before he was dumped at his new apartment. He went over the details of the case in his mind. Four men dead. All juniors at Thompson University. Their throats were slashed and their bodies were dumped in the woods that cut the college campus in half, all three weeks apart, never reported missing until their bodies turned up. Aaron Daniels and Adam Kelly were Literature majors while Allen Taylor and Andrew Kyle were Journalism majors. Their names all resonated with Spencer. All began with "A" and their surnames could all be first names. There was nothing in the file suggesting that there was a connection between the names, but Spencer knew there had to be something. His pattern trained brain would not let it go.
It was then that the small Philadelphia BAU team arrived. It was 1:48am. The team consisted of two men and one woman, all covered in wetness that was a short time ago snow. The older of the two men Spencer could have mistaken for Hotch's father, with his grim expression, every movement exuding a former career as a lawyer. The younger of the two men wore thick stylish glasses and his left hand kept twitching towards his gun. The woman was the youngest in the group, Spencer could guess that she was almost 30 if not already. She had natural reddish orange hair, green eyes and pale skin. She was everything Agent Jackson was not. Girly with a trustworthy face.
The older of the two men stepped forward, offering his hand to Spencer when he stood to meet the man.
"I'm Agent Don Royston. I'm in charge of this team. These are Agents Matthew Young and Susan Danvers. You've already met our media specialist Agent Sabrina Jackson. I trust your flight went well." Spencer decided that this man's stare was worse than Hotch's. He wanted to melt into his shoes.
"Yes, it was fine."
"Good. I see that you've been given quite the successful make-over, Doctor. You do not even look remotely like you're the picture in your file."
"Well, I guess that was the point, sir." Spencer crossed his arms, looking down at his feet.
"It most certainly was, Doctor. Right, down to business. You'll be enrolling in Thompson as a Literature major, a transfer from Flagstaff University. Classes start in two days. Have you given any thought to your alias?" Royston glared at the younger man.
"Yes, I have. I noticed that there was a pattern in the names of the victims. All their first names begin with the letter 'A' and their surnames could all be used as first names, well that is if you chop of the 'S' on Aaron Daniels' last name. So, I thought that my best chance to put myself in the potential victim pool would be…" Royston cut Spencer off.
"Your name, Doctor. I'm tired and want to go home. Please get to the point."
"Sorry, I have a tendency to ramble. Hotch and Morgan are always yelling at me for it. I tend to…"
"Doctor, please." Royston moved his hand to his face with a sigh.
"Alexander Reid. My middle name is Alexander and my last name could already be construed as a first name, so I'll just chop off my first name and go by Alex Reid. Well, that is if that's fine with you, sir."
"Yes, that's fine…Alex. You'll be given a new cell phone. My number will be programmed under 'Dad' and Agents Young and Danvers will be under their first names. If you need them to join you on campus, Agent Young will be your older brother from my first marriage and Agent Danvers will be his fiancé. Agent Jackson will be my current wife, but not your mother. Now that we've got that settled., Agent Jackson will drive you home. Enroll and start observing and report back to us this weekend."
"Okay, sir."
"Get some rest, kid. This is going to be one hell of an assignment."
