Exibit A

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

'If every fool wore a crown, we'd all be kings' ~ Welsh proverb.

Hotch and the team had just finished giving the profile of the unsub to the local police. Since the last murder, stories of the Board walk killer had been all over the news. The case was extremely frustrating. Undercover men and women were set up at various points along the the four mile stretch of boardwalk. The tip line was going crazy and there were even a few people, for reasons that only they understood claimed to have either witnessed the murders or committed them.

Unfortunately, it was all par for the course. These kind of things happened with almost every high profile case. It mean't a lot of wasted man hours checking out the nutbar stories.

Hotch looked over at his youngest team member. Reid was in a corner working on a geological profile, He had told them what Gideon had said and it wasn''t particulary helpful. Garcia had done some checking. There were no other murders that were similar in nature to these. Reid was disappointed the lead led to nowhere. Gideon always seemed to disappoint him.

Hotch called Reid over and suggested they go somewhere private to talk. Reid agreed, though he wondered what it was all about. He had already apologized for getting sick at the crime scene and then staying away the rest of the day. Surely he couldn't blame him for the ramblings of Gideon.

Hotch assured him it was not about getting sick or Gideon. At that moment Rossi walked into the room and saw the sombre expression on the unit chief's face.

"Dave, I want you to stay, you were witness to this too." Hotch said.

Rossi complied and sat down in a chair opposite Hotch, he noted that Reid was not looking too happy. Hotch stared down at the table in front of him for a moment before he began. His kept his voice even and quiet for he didn't want anyone else to hear.

"Reid I want you to know that whatever you do in your private life is your business, however we are here on FBI business and if anyone found out you were entertaining men in your hotel room, we would be in deep trouble."

Reid looked at his unit chief, his eyes wide with shock.

"Entertaining men,? Hotch, are you talking about Gideon being in my room the other night?" Reid said.

Hotch frowned at the young man perplexed, "No Reid,"

He hoped Reid wasn't going to make him spell it out for him, for this was embarrassing enough.

Suddenly it dawned on Reid who Hotch was talking about."

"Oh, you mean Ethan," he said softly.

"Yes, if that's his name, I saw the two of you go into your room the other night and then Dave and I saw him leave last night,"

Reid leaned forward in his chair looking at the two older men "Do you watch my room all the time?" Now he was feeling indignant.

"Of course not Reid, it just happened we were there when he was." explained Rossi.

Reid had entered the room feeling contrite and apologetic, now he felt almost outraged. He had done nothing wrong except help a friend. He had planned on explaining the situation to Hotch but now he felt, why the hell should he?

He stood up and faced the men with a stony expression.

"If I had seen a strange man leaving or entering the room of either of you, the first thing I wouldn't have thought is that you were 'entertaining them'. Now if you'll excuse me, I think we are still looking for a murderer, I have work to do." Reid said between clenched teeth. He strode out of the room bumping into Morgan as he went by, he said nothing and kept on going.

Morgan stared after him. He walked in the room where Hotch and Rossi sat wearing confused expressions.

"Umm Hotch, the Captain would like to speak to you" Morgan said.

Hotch merely scowled and walked out of the room.

Prentiss upon seeing a parade of intense agents striding out of the same room went in to see what all the drama was about.

"Hey ,What's going on," she said to her two colleagues.

Morgan put his hand up, a call was coming in from Garcia.

"You're on speaker phone babygirl, I've got Rossi and Prentiss with me." he said.

"Thank you my mocha Adonis" she chirped. "Now I widened the search for similar killings in other states and came up with nada. Sorry guys. I guess Gideon's hot tip was a bust."

"That's Alright Garcia, it was a long shot anyway" Rossi said.

There was pause on the other end of the line before Garcia spoke again "Hey guys, I detect a certain melancholy in your voices. everything ok there?"

This time the silence was on their end.

"You are scaring me, where is baby genius and our fearless leader," she asked

"Hotch is with the police Captain." answered Prentiss.

"And Reids is... He's in trouble, isn't he. I should have told somebody," said Garcia.

"Garcia, you know something about the bruises around his throat" said Prentiss.

"No, she's talking about him possibly being gay." said Morgan knowingly.

"And having men in his room at night while on duty here" finished Rossi"

Morgan looked at him "What?"

They could all hear Garcia's gasp "No, that's not what I was talking about at all, though it would explain the gross of condoms he carries," she said.

"Condoms?" exclaimed Rossi.

"Yes, condoms, candy, books and ..."she hesitated. Garcia honestly didn't want to betray Reid but she wanted to help him at the same time.

"Baby girl what else?" demanded Morgan

"A syringe." she said quietly.

The profilers all looked at one another with dismayed expressions. Rossi found his voice and said what was on the tip of everyone's tougue.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON,?"

Before anyone could answer that question, one of the beat cops rushed into the room slightly out of breath.

"Agents, our Captain called, one of your men is hurt and on the way to the hospital. You're needed there now." she said.

The team snapped out of their collective shock and went to work.

TBC.

AN. This is a shorter chapter but there is more to come. Please read and review. Thank you.