Lawrence was tongue-tied as he drove them from the airport. In the backseat, Garcia and Gideon caught up on the missed decades and talked about recent happenings.

"I still can't believe he did that! Were you watching the news?" Garcia waved her painted fingernails as she talked. "He could have been shot! You'd think he'd stop giving me heart attacks as old as he is now."

Gideon rested a hand on the window glass, worried about how Reid would actually react to him. Maybe he shouldn't have come. "I was only about 50 miles away from Topeka Falls."

"You were?"

"And everyone's going to be there?"

"They're already here. I, we, managed to find Elle, but she didn't want to come." Garcia shifted in her seat. "I know Reid will be happy to see you."

"I hope you're right."

Lawrence pulled up at the front door of the hotel and got out. He hoped his chief was happy to see Jason Gideon, too. If not, he'd disavow all knowledge of being involved.

Reid unlocked his office door and flicked on the lights. Today, he swore he was going to start taking things down from his walls. The party was on Saturday, and that was the beginning of the downhill slide. And he still didn't know what he would do with the next. Ada and Karen would no doubt stay on the east coast for the foreseeable future, and he had the house. There wasn't any rush to move back to Nevada.

He picked the tablet computer up off his desk as he heard a rap on the door. "Come in."

Lawrence pushed the door open. "Morning, sir. I've got those case files from the Seattle field office you wanted me and Branthau to look at."

Reid took the short stack of files. "Ah, Seattle, I remember going there, long time ago."

"Vogel, right, sir?"

"Good memory, that case was over thirty years ago. Were you even born yet, Lawrence?"

"I think I was in high school, sir."

Reid started reading the case files. "Now I know how Rossi felt when he first meet me."

If there was one thing Emily Prentiss loved about vacations, it was the ability to wake up whenever the hell you wanted to.

Or at least until an old friend started banging on your door. Prentiss forced herself to sit up as she tried to stretch stiff old muscles. "JJ, do you have any idea what time it is?"

Her voice was muffled through the door. "How'd you know it was me, Em?"

"Because."

"Morgan wants us; we're having breakfast with Ada and Karen. Reid's already at work."

Prentiss forced herself out of bed. That wasn't a surprise. She unlocked the deadbolt and let her in. "Think there'll be another case before the party?"

"Hopefully not another one that requires Spence to go out in person." JJ tossed her purse into a chair. "Would you hurry up, old woman? I'd like to spend every minute I can with my goddaughters."

"Don't be calling me old, JJ. Pot, meet kettle?" Prentiss checked her hair in the mirror one more time, making sure her roots weren't showing. "You know why I really hate you, Jayje, your blonde hair hides your gray."

"Oh, you have no idea how much gray I'm hiding, Em. Clairol has been my best friend ever since Henry got his art degree."

"Really, that long? Oh, you naughty girl, and here I thought I was the only one going gray."

Both women left the hotel room as they segued from hair dyeing to JJ's grandchildren.

Hotch was paging through the newspaper. Rossi leaned over his friend's shoulder. "He did some good work on that embezzlement case, Aaron."

It was the page 4 story, millions stolen from the company's employee retirement accounts via an almost unnoticeable paper trail of siphoning. "Why didn't Jack think he could tell me he was in the White Collar division?"

"Because you spent more than twenty years chasing serial killers. He chases paper trails. And you cast a long shadow, by doing what he does he's trying to get out of yours."

Karen Reid chose the most private table she could get in the little café. "This's been my favorite place ever since I opened my office."

Morgan pulled out chairs for the assembled ladies before he sat down with them. "You girls have any idea where Garcia's got to?"

JJ pursed her lips. "I haven't seen her since last night."

Ada flagged down a waitress while she added, "Aunt Penny went to the airport with Matt last night."

JJ turned around. "Yes, about SSA Lawrence, sit, talk."

Karen snorted at her twin sister. "Ada and Agent Lawrence have a crush on each other. Except Dad would kill him and the body would never be found."

Morgan laughed. "That, that's true."

Ada shook her head. "It's not a crush, we've been goofing around like that since, since, I don't know, at least since he joined the BAU. He used to be a tech analyst, that's when I originally met him."

As the group finished off breakfast, Morgan, Prentiss, and JJ didn't hesitate to cash in their senior citizen discounts. Karen led everyone outside. "How about you guys come back to the house? We've got keys and you know you want to."

Morgan and Prentiss got predatory grins on their faces. JJ shook her head. "Guys, we shouldn't. It is Reid's house, the girls are only visiting. You know he likes his privacy."

"But they invited us over, that makes it completely okay, JJ." Prentiss picked up her handbag. "After you, girls."

Garcia and Gideon snuck around the hotel for breakfast while she decided who they should talk to first.

She was loading up a plate from the complimentary breakfast when Rossi took that choice away. "Where is he?"

She turned around. "Who?"

"You know who. You went to the airport last night. Where's Jason?"

"Follow me. God, I hate profilers." Garcia loaded up a second plate for Gideon.

Gideon was still in the room Lawrence had checked him into last night. Garcia rapped on the door, than he opened it to see she wasn't alone. "David."

"Jason. Long time." Rossi pressed his way in as Gideon stepped away from the door.

"Likewise. Does anyone else know I'm here yet?"

"I think the younger of our oldies group went out to breakfast. I'd imagine Reid is at work." Rossi sat down on the chairs and examined his old colleague. "He's grown up, you know."

"I kept tabs, on what was going on with the team. Google, it's an amazing thing once you start using it."

"He's widowed with twin daughters."

"I know that, too, I'm hoping he's willing to see me."

Garcia smiled. "Everyone will be happy to see you, come on, we're joining everybody else for breakfast."

"Garcia, we just had-"

"You can never have too much breakfast. Come along, my elderly cupcakes!"

The moment the file from the Virginia state police hit his desk, Reid knew this would be bad. Agent Cassidy worried at her hair. "Seven victims in a mass grave two miles outside Roanoke city limits. They're all tourists who have been reported missing. They were partially disemboweled-"

Reid threw down the coroner's report. "And they each had a half-carat cubic zirconia solitaire shoved amongst their small intestines. It's him, Cassidy."

The communications liaison nodded. "And the number '7', on the lower back. We never told the press about that detail, sir."

He grabbed up the file and walked out of his office, trailed by Cassidy. "Lawrence! Round up your team, the Diamond Killer's back! Seaver!"

That was all it took for a morbid hush to come over the BAU as agents headed for the round table room. Nobody was going to forget the unsub that had managed to humiliate the BAU and completely and utterly pull one on Spencer Reid.

Karen unlocked the house and hurried into the living room to open the blinds. Prentiss looked around, and she tried not to feel happy that the place looked like the apartment that Reid had had before he'd gotten married. Books were on about half of the flat surfaces. Ada sighed as she grabbed a feather duster off the sideboard. "I just don't get how Dad spent his entire twenties as a bachelor and can't even dust."

JJ and Prentiss both started laughing as Morgan crossed the room to where the TV hutch was in a corner. "Oh, hey, Emily, look at this. Remember that crazy picture Rossi took of the wedding party at the reception, just before Reid and Austin bounced?"

"Oh my god, does Reid still have that?" Prentiss was turning colors as she crossed the living room.

JJ managed to keep ahead of the twins. "Lucky that wedding was in the afternoon."

Karen pushed up to the pictures on top of the TV hutch. "What happened that morning?"

Prentiss pointed at Morgan. "Your Uncle Derek and the rest of the guys got your dad drunk the night before the wedding, right after the rehearsal dinner."

Morgan struggled to defend himself. "In me, Hotch, and Rossi's defense, the bachelor party got interrupted for that case in Oklahoma. Reid needed to relax. And why I am the only one you're calling out by name."

JJ laughed. "You're here, and you were the best man. You know the rule. 'Anything stupid done by the groom is the best man's fault.' "

The reminiscing of the shrill ring of Karen's cell phone. She grabbed it out of her pocket and checked the number before answering. "Yeah, Dad, it's Karen."

"I will be at the party, but something's come up and I might not be home tonight, or for a couple of days. It's a case, and I have to go on this one."

"Dad! For God's sakes, didn't you get enough of this in your life?" Karen tried not to look at the team.

"It's the Diamond Killer, honey. He's back."

Karen nodded, knowing many questions would soon come. "Do what you have to, Dad. We'll see you when you get back. Bye-bye."

As she hung up, JJ pounced. "What was that about?"

"The Diamond Killer is back. Did you guys ever hear about that case? Anyway, it was one of the big ones he never closed."

Morgan crossed his arms. "Start talking, girls."

Garcia, Gideon and Rossi soon headed for Hotch's room. She knocked on the door.

In the room, he had his phone to his ear. "You want my retired input, Reid?"

"You do consulting work, Hotch, and I could use some fresh eyes on this. I'm going with Lawrence and his team to Roanoke. And before you say it, I know I'm too close to this investigation, believe me."

"I wasn't going to say anything, Reid." Hotch stood up to go answer the door.

"I am, but I have to catch this guy. He, well, he humiliated me as a unit chief, with the same agents I'm taking with me now. I'd like you and Rossi both to look at the case file, and remember that the entire profile my team and I wrote seven years ago was wrong."

"The entire profile?" Hotch opened the door and his jaw dropped to see Gideon standing with Rossi and Garcia. He immediately decided Reid didn't need to hear about this right now, and shushed the group while gesturing them in.

"Pretty much. The Diamond Killer stuck a ring in my nose, hooked a lead rope to it, and made sure we drew the conclusions he wanted us to draw. Once we committed to the profile, he spent a week proving us massively wrong. I'm going to catch this bastard this time, Hotch."

And Aaron Hotchner was almost sure he'd never heard Reid call anyone that before. "Fax the files, me and Dave will see what we can do. We'll get the rest of the team in on it, too."

"Have to go. If you guys see something that breaks this, I will get you and Rossi your standard consulting fees, budget or no budget. Gotta go." Hotch was a little surprised at how brusquely Reid hung up, but he'd been warned.

"Jason, it's been a long time between visits."

Gideon nodded. "That was Spencer?"

"He's getting involved in another case. What do you two know about the Diamond Killer?"

Rossi sat down and thought this discussion would go better with a drink. "I was watching that case. Had some thoughts, but - he's back, isn't he?"

Hotch nodded. "Reid would like us to consult, there could even be a fee in it. This one is personal for him."

Gideon put in some more of the embarassment the team had taken. "Having one of your agents kidnapped and dumped in a public park in her underwear will do that, not to mention being precisely potshotted, outside a police station, after you said on TV the killer was too disorganized for any sort of planned assault, not to mention-."

Rossi pointed to the door. "Until he sends us the case files, this conversation would go better with drinks."

Ada, Karen, Morgan, JJ, and Prentiss walked back into the hotel. Prentiss was shaking her head at the cleansed details the girls had. "This guy managed to completely run rings around Reid?"

Karen nodded. "The Diamond Killer is the only one that Dad gives the credit of the guy's nickname these days. He kidnapped Delolly and dumped her in her underwear in the Roanoke city park, mailed her service weapon and her badge back to Quantico, and left the bullets scattered around her."

Ada added. "And took potshots at them outside the police station. It was scary, we were pretty young still and Dad got hit, almost everybody did."

Garcia was giddily watching the three senior profilers pouring over the case file in an quiet corner of the hotel lounge. It was like the old days. Rossi had the original profile. "The unsub treated this like a laundry list of 'Things to Prove Wrong.' "

Gideon knew the key was the significance of the rings left in the victim's bodies. The unsub had lost a wife or fiancee, and somewhere the blame was on the victims. "Were Reid and his team wrong at the time, or did the unsub change his behavior in reaction to the profile? Ignore Spencer's conclusions in the report, we trained him. These victims are all over the board, guy's an omnivore."

"You don't change from highly disorganized to being able to kidnap a FBI agent in broad daylight, conduct a planned ambush on the same street as a police department, and send an entire doctoral dissertation on criminology and abnormal psychology to the special agent in charge in a short amount of time." Hotch shook his head. "The unsub led the team to make the conclusions he wanted them to make, so he could prove them wrong and humiliate them, it's as important as the murders themselves for him."

Garcia turned around and sucked in a breath when she heard the voices behind her. The other half of the reunion had come back.

"Gideon?" Morgan stared at the three, buried in a case file between them. There were so many things that needed said, but he settled for, "That the file on the Diamond Killer?"

Hotch gestured the rest of the group to the table. "Reid would like fresh eyes on it, even if they're our old ones. There might be a consulting fee in it."

Prentiss stepped up to look at the stapled stack of paper that was the perfectly formatted dissertation that the unsub had sent. "Oh, I'm sure we can break the case on someone who outmanuevered an entire team of young, up to date profilers with Reid leading them."

Gideon raised a hand. "In youth we learn; in age we understand."

Ada perked up. "Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach."

Morgan took the crime scene photos. "You are just like Reid, Ada."

Roanoke, Virginia

The team walked into the local police department. It was Round 2, and this time Reid had to admit he felt more confident inside to know that the friends he'd known for thirty years and some were involved, too, even at something of a distance.

Cassidy offered her hand to the case detective. "Agent Lynn Cassidy, we spoke on Skype. This is SSA Lawrence, our unit chief, SSAs Cooper and Delolly, SA Branthau and SA Harris; and our Section Chief Spencer Reid."

Detective Luke Braden shook Cassidy's hand. "Detective Braden. I've heard you've dealt with this sicko before?"

Lawrence nodded. "We encountered him seven years ago in Tallahassee, Florida, Detective."

Reid was already looking for their work space. "We're catching him this time, Lawrence."

He had wanted that grave found, that was the only reason it had been. Now the game was beginning again, and the lack of new players was disappointing, only the scrawny one who hid himself in the back was new, and he didn't look like any sort of challenge, just another example of the kind of trash he liked to hunt.