Title; With all odds against us.
Pairings; Sorry everyone. Bare with me, yes?
Genre; Crime, Drama, Procedural.
Rating; PG-13
Warnings; Graphic descriptions.
Story Style; Multi-chapter, as long as people keep reading.
Disclaimer; I do not own Criminal Minds, or any of the mentioned characters. They are not mine, and I make no money for writing these stories, if I did, I wouldn't be dying of hunger. I am not affiliated with the owners of Criminal Minds, I'm just a lone college student who lives with their grammy. I'm only playing with the characters for my own sick and twisted sense of fun, I will return the characters to their proper shelves once I am finished.
Author's Notes; Here, I want to take the chance to thank Rayne McKenna, PinkHimeLacus, and KeepBreathing3 for being with me from the very beginning of this story. Of course, I also thank all of my other readers and especially those who have been leaving reviews. Your guys' thoughts and opinions and reactions all mean the world to me! Thank you for reading! Read and Review, please!


"He's got no fear. He'll stand his ground at the blue line all day. We need more guys like that."

- Ron Wilson -


"There's been no one here to touch the scene other than the local authorities, right?"

Spencer Reid confirmed this information as he slid a pair of blue latex gloves over his fingers, after adjusting his watch. He didn't know why, but he couldn't stand the feel of a watch or bracelet or some other form of jewelry across his wrists, fingers, or necklace. He read once that 'gifted' people such as him were extremely sensitive to external stimuli, but he preferred to call it a personal quirk. He'd never liked thinking of himself as a 'genius,' besides...what was a genius anyway?

"That's right, it's just been me, and my boys," the local sheriff replied quickly as he adjusted the hat on his head.

The sun was beginning to come up by the time that agents Morgan, Rossi, and the affirmed Dr. Reid had arrived on the scene. It was needless to say that the day-care center had been closed. Sunny Oaks Day-Care. It would take quite a while for the little old owner to get a hold on things again. Mrs. Henny was her name, or at least Reid thought that was her name. Henny, Penny, Jenny. Something like that, he couldn't be quite sure. But regardless of whatever her name was, she was in for a rough time after a body had been discovered by her when she went back to the building because she'd forgotten an important file of papers.

Rossi had pulled her to the side of the bright red brick colored building. He wasn't the best at comforting people, despite his years of work, but he was trying. It probably would have been better if Prentiss had been there, she was much more delicate with careful matters like these after all. Still though, Rossi was getting the job done and was running through a list of memorized questions; asking her what was so important for her to come get, if there was anything unusual about that night, if she recognized the corpse, if she'd had any disgruntled customers as of late, or knew anyone who was unusually angry. The little old lady only clutched at the pendant on her chest, shaking her head at every question that Rossi dished out. The half Italian agent did his best to keep his cool, knowing that it would do no good to upset her. She was upset enough.

While Dave dealt with the owner, it was up to Derek and Spencer to investigate the scene itself.

They stepped into the main lobby of the day-care, towards the receptionist's desk, the sheriff was right at their heels. Sheriff Duncan stepped around the boys and stared dryly at the disformed corpse, "The coroner should be on their way, they'll be able to give a proper diagnosis of the actual cause of death,"

Reid frowned and pushed the chair out of the way, making sure not to disturb the body, "It's easy enough to see exactly what the cause of death was," He pointed with a blue finger, "There wouldn't be bruising like this if the...popsicle sticks hadn't been placed there post mortem," Reid could hear Morgan give an uncomfortably audible swallow from behind him, "He was alive when the unsub forced these into his throat," Reid informed, continuing to stare over the body, "He obviously goes to the gym, based on this muscle definition, meaning our unsub isn't physically disadvantaged. This isn't the work of a woman." Spencer continued to work the details out before he turned back to the rather overweight sheriff, "He's not married either, Has the family been contacted yet?"

Sheriff Duncan's face turned into a deep frown, "Poor guy never had much of a family, he's been here all his life - used to be a friend of my son's," Reid tucked that little tidbit into the back of his brain for later, "Evan here lost his parents when he was a kid, was raised by his older sister..." Sheriff Duncan fell into a brief history of Evan Foster as Morgan turned his attention elsewhere, to the rest of the room.

The darker agent took even steps throughout the small and tidy lobby. Interesting. Small, and tidy. There were no signs of a struggle, nothing seemed to be out of place. He'd have to ask, but he was fairly sure that if he asked Mrs. Henny if anything was moved from where it usually was, that it would all be in it's proper place. Morgan strode over to the front of the building, he examined the door, "No sign of forced entry," He turned and looked back into the lobby, there was a tiny desk next to the door, and on that desk layed a key. Derek plucked the key up from it's spot, "Hey sheriff," Derek interupted with a hollar, "Did Mrs. Henny say anything about forgetting a key behind?"

The sheriff glanced up and Reid continued to examine the body and it's close surroundings. Evan Foster was fourty-eight years old. He wasn't married, and didn't appear to have any family at all. An exam of Mr. Foster's wallet held no pictures whatsoever, not even of anyone who appeared to be his sister. The sheriff strode over to Mrs. Henny, "No...that can't be hers," He informed, "She said she put everything she had back into her purse when she came outside and called us. When she stood up after I arrived, her keys fell out of her purse,"

Derek furrowed his brow and twisted the key between his fingers, "Which means that our guy either knew Mrs. Henny, or has been watching her long enough to make a copy of her key,"

Spencer felt himself swallow, "So our unsub is connected to Mrs. Henny somehow, she might not even know it yet," He glanced back at the brown-haired and blue-faced corpse of Evan Foster, "But how is Evan Foster connected to the two of them? Our unsub definitely wouldn't have dumped the body here for convenience," Reid analyzed, placing a finger on his chin as he thought it out.

"Which means?" The sheriff urged mildly.

Derek took over, "That this was personal. The unsub has got to know both Mrs. Henny and Mr. Foster, or at the very least, Evan's got to know Mrs. Henny..." Derek paused, "Unless..." A lightbulb seemed to be instantaneously shared between Morgan and Reid at that moment.

"Sheriff...is there a Mr. Henny?" Reid ventured.

"Hmm?" The sheriff questioned, "Yeah...there is, but he's been in the hospital recovering from a knee injury," The elderly man mulled over the information, "This can't really have anything to do with him, can it? Wouldn't they just go after Paul if they had a grudge against him? Why pull his wife into it?"

Derek stepped through the lobby once more, examining the windows, "It's leverage. There's no better way to torment someone than to torture someone important to them that they have no way to help right away," He brushed a finger over the seal of the glass, "Evan Foster could have upset our unsub somehow, and since he has no family, maybe they go after the closest thing that he has to one, which sounds like Mr. Henny. But the Mr. is tucked safely in a hospital with tight security measures, and the Mrs. is out here in the open where anyone can get to her. With something happening to her while he's vulnerable, he can't save her," Morgan informed, "It puts him at the greatest disadvantage, and our unsub at the greatest advantage,"

The sheriff nodded affirmatively. It definitely made sense to him, "I'm going to give Mr. Henny a call, he has the right to know that his wife's alright," He stepped from the lobby, "You let me know if you find anything important, alright?" With his next breath, the sheriff was gone and it was just Morgan and Reid in the lobby, with a corpse. Spencer eyed the body again and placed a hand around his own throat.

At that moment, Morgan chimed up again, "They're lucky that she drove back last night. It's a damned good thing that no kids were exposed to this,"

Reid agreed with a short nod, "But it would have been better if no one had to be exposed to something like this,"

Derek offered a sigh and shook his head, watching as Reid knelt down by the body, "You know, we'd be out of a job if that ever happened,"

Spencer lifted his head and looked Derek in the eye, "You'd rather have a job than have suffering diminished?"

"C'mon kid, You know I didn't mean it like that,"

Reid blinked once and lowered his head, lifting the foot of the corpse with one foot and turning it slightly. It wasn't wearing shoes, and there was an index card with an uroboros stamped on it. The card was taped to the heel of the left foot. Reid narrowed his eyes, "Then how did you mean it?" he examined the foot silently, eyeing the artifact in his grip.

Morgan stepped over to Spencer's side and kneeled down next to him, "This kind of stuff has always been happening, it's just how people are...and we just happen to be the sort of people made to lock them up," Spencer nodded in understanding, "Hey, Pretty boy, if you weren't in the BAU, what do you think you'd be doing?" His question was surprisingly sincere and wasn't at all a joke.

Spencer looked up and frowned, "I don't really know. I've never thought about it before," He shrugged his shoulders softly, "What about you?" He questioned, honestly interested.

Derek shrugged, and glanced down at the card taped to the bottom of Evan Foster's foot, "I'd probably still be a cop back in Chicago," He noted, "The family'd be happy about it," He cracked a gentle smile at the idea of living near his family again. His mother, and two older sisters. He really did miss them. However, it was in that moment, that Derek glanced over and saw the frown on Spencer's face. Spencer wasn't the type to wear his emotions on his sleeves, in fact, Reid was the type to hide from his emotions, often smothering them in endless facts and statistics. So then, what was that look for?

Trying to avoid an even heavier situation (given the circumstances) Morgan gave Reid a little nudge with the edge of his elbow, "What's up, kid? Would you really miss me that bad if I moved back home?"

Spencer swayed in his spot from the nudge and gave a quick blink, "Ah, no - uhh...that's not it," he cleared his throat, "It's this..." He pointed at the uroboros stamp, "The uroboros stands for something that continuously re-creates itself," He clarified, "Something that eternally returns," Spencer furrowed his brows and pursed his lips together, "This would make sense if the murders were all the same, but the only thing constant between them is their differences, and this signature," He gingerly laid the foot back down, "I think..." He shook his head, "I think that this signature doesn't have a second meaning to it, I think that's it's only here so that we know the murders are connected. He wants us to know what he's doing, and he wants us to follow him. He doesn't want us to get distracted by other cases," Spencer locked eyes with Derek, "Do you ever get the feeling that they're just leading us on a wild goose chase?"

Derek nodded, "With every case, kid,"

"No, but...I mean...this feels different than that," Spencer almost couldn't seem to grasp what he was saying, "It's almost like he knows what we're looking for, and he's purposely giving us just the right things to lead us in nothing but circles,"

It was at this very moment just when suspicions and tensions seemed to be peaking, that Spencer felt something tickle across the back of his hand. Spencer's features shifted momentarily, his brows knitted together and he turned his head downward, his eyes fell onto the back of his hand and he practically bit his own tongue off.

There on the plane of his hand rested a single brown spider. Ohhh, but not just any brown spider.

Approximately an inch long.

Only three pairs of eyes, instead of four.

Finally, there was a dark brown violin shaped spot on it's cephalothorax.

Spencer's brain instantly identified the spider as a brown recluse, otherwise known as a violin spider, the distant but extremely deadly cousin to the more glamorous black widow spider.

In panic, Spencer jerked his hand away from the corpse of Evan Foster and snapped his wrist away from him. Successfully, he'd managed to send the eight legged beast away from him and across the room. Though really, he could have thought of a better way to deal with it. Unfortunately though, through all of his panic, and that little yelp that escaped him, he'd managed to loose his balance. Now, normally, this temporary loss of balance wouldn't be so terrible, however, this time, he'd managed to fling himself directly into FBI agent Derek Morgan. Not only that, but there'd been enough for fueled by Spencer's adrenaline to throw the two of them onto the floor.

Morgan landed on his back, with Spencer sprawled directly on top of him. The genius' head was tucked neatly under Derek's chin, and he was cradled instantly by the mass of muscle which was Morgan. Spencer's chest heaved in panic, eyes dilated as he watched the little brown spot on the ground. However, Derek only laughed, "Afraid of a little bug, pretty boy?" He couldn't even attempt to contain his laughter.

Spencer on the other hand, continued to heave, panic raising his voice by at least a full octave, "Do you have any idea how poisonous those are?"

It was at that moment, that the sheriff entered the lobby again, opening the door and conveniently stepping squarely on that little bug with the heel of his boot, "Uhhm...agents...?" Sheriff Duncan cleared his throat and gave the men a moment to collect themselves (though Spencer's face only flushed in embarrassed misery, "The coroner's here, he'd like a little time to examine the body where it rests, if you don't mind,"

Both Morgan and Spencer clambered to their feet; Derek looked far from effected, however, Spencer was nervously clearing his throat and straightening out his clothes while the two of them left the lobby. Reid practically drowned Derek with a plethora of facts on the brown recluse spider, as if justifying his panic. Derek only continued to laugh, wiggling his brows over at the genius with a smug reply of, "Right, kid, we all know you just wanted to get your hands on me," He grinned and offered a playful wink. He really did have the best of intentions.

Penelope would never stop teasing her little boy genius if Derek ever told her.

No, wait, not if...when. When he told her.


Author's Notes; Here's another chapter for all of you, I hope that this one is more entertaining than the last. I really need to focus on making my chapters longer, they're so short T_T Anyway, yeah...spiders are scary, especially when you know how toxic their venom is =_=; Reid's too smart for his own good. C'mon, who expected a recluse to come out of a dead body? Right? _;; I gave myself the shivers when I looked up their identification tricks *Shudder*