A/n hey guys here's the next chapter. Thanks for sticking with this story. I appreciate all your kind comments.

Disclaimer: Nothing recognizable is mine. I own only my own characters.

Realizations

Morgan pushed the letter away with an impatient shove, "Don't tell me you believe all of that crap. Reid doesn't need this now. His father was a complete bastard and he wants sympathy from the grave."

"It doesn't matter at this point!" Hotch said gesturing to the pile of documents. He picked them up and began to go through them. "If we can use any of this to help us find Reid, then I have to thank William Reid."

"Come on Hotch you don't really think -"

"Morgan… Stop it," Hotch ordered the agent. "If you can't get your objectivity back, I'll send you home."

Their eyes and wills clashed silently for a long minute, then Morgan lowered his eyes and slumped in his chair.

"I know you're all very concerned about Reid especially after what happened in Georgia, but he's strong, he'll get through whatever it is that he's dealing with now." Hotch looked them all in the eye in turn.

"Um… boss man, I don't mean to interrupt, but I found something about Dr. Emery Black." Garcia interjected.

Hotch nodded in her direction and she cleared her throat before continuing. "He was born in Grand Rapids Michigan on April seventh nineteen forty nine. He's another prodigy like Reid. He went to college at Harvard and graduate school at Columbia. He earned his medical degree in nineteen sixty-seven and his first PhD in psychology in nineteen sixty-nine. His second PhD in genetics was earned at UCLA medical school in nineteen seventy-two. He was thrown out of mainstream research and development in nineteen seventy-seven because he was experimenting on humans without the ok of the FDA, or the University. He dropped out of sight completely after his grandfather died in nineteen seventy-nine, and he inherited a lot of money."

"Was there anything strange about the death of his grandfather?" Hotch asked the analyst.

"No… it was ruled natural causes."

"Okay… so he's been off the grid for nearly thirty years. We have Reid's father making the accusation that this man was experimenting with human DNA, and that Reid is the triumphant result of that. What is this Frankenstein? Should we call the natives and storm the castle with torches, pick-axes and baseball bats." Morgan said derisively.

"Morgan," Hotch snapped at him.

"No… I refuse to believe any of this," Morgan was up and pacing. He slammed a flat hand against the far wall. "I know what you're all thinking. You think Reid was kidnapped by this maniac. Why… after all this time would he come after Reid? Why not take him back as a child."

"I don't know Morgan, why don't you tell us from what you know about the man." Hotch said with a deadly calm voice.

Morgan opened his mouth, and then saw how the rest of the team was looking at him and closed it with a snap. He heaved in a huge breath and looked at Garcia, who winked at him and grinned.

"He's a sadist with a God complex. If we assume that all of this is true, then he's a very dangerous man. Who knows how many more of these so called super humans he's created? He wants Reid back for a reason that probably includes some form of forced world domination. He thinks that only Reid can make that happen for him. Reid is his first success and someone took that away from him. He's trying to re-establish control."

"I think Morgan's right." Rossi said. "We need to go through these documents and try to find out what this man wants from Reid."

"Let's get on it." Hotch ordered.

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Emily dropped the papers she was holding without really seeing what they contained and excused herself from the conference room.

"I need coffee." was all she said when Hotch raised an eyebrow in her direction

She fled the room and headed down the hallway to a large break room on the left hand side. Agent Christensen had shown them around, and very begrudgingly told them to make themselves at home. Emily wanted to laugh at her, she reminded Emily of Erin Strauss, only Strauss was the more attractive of the two.

The coffee pot was half full and smelled very good. Her head was still whirling around trying to make sense of the letter from Reid's father. God… how could anyone do that to his own family even if he thought it was in their best interest.

Where was the coffee creamer? The refrigerator was full of plastic containers with questionable contents, and brown paper bags with names written on them. There was a sign on the outside of the door that warned everyone the fridge would be cleaned out every Friday at six, and to collect anything they didn't want thrown out. Well… that was a demanding little missive. There wasn't any cream anywhere, but there was a carton of milk that wasn't labeled and wasn't past the expiration date. She grabbed it and dumped some in her coffee.

There was an ugly cream colored hard plastic chair next to an equally ugly plastic table, she made a beeline for them, and used a spoon found in a drawer that looked clean, to stir her coffee.

The paper cup was hot in her hand, but it didn't matter somehow. Who knew what was happening to Reid at that very moment. Why did he leave the DC area? What had happened to make him leave without telling the rest of the team? She'd been over and over the paperwork they'd divided up from the safety deposit box. They needed help in figuring this out. They needed Reid! She needed Reid. She needed him to be sitting across from her with his forehead furrowed in concentration, trying to figure out the latest obscure puzzle that a un-sub had come up with to play with them.

She took a sip of the coffee and grimaced it was still too hot and it tasted terrible. Only Reid liked FBI coffee. Stop thinking about him! She told herself very sternly. This isn't about you, it's about him. He's in trouble and you all better learn to function without him.

She was absently stirring the coffee again and trying not to cry when Garcia came into the room. "I thought I would try some of the sludge they call coffee." She said to Emily, who didn't respond.

"Hey… what's going on with you today?" She asked her friend while pouring out a cup and adding milk and sugar to the paper cup.

"Come on Emily, this is me you're dealing with" Garcia informed her while sitting in the only other available chair in the room. "God… could these things be any more uncomfortable."

"What…" Emily said looking up from the coffee she was stirring and not drinking.

"Are you going to tell me what's got you so upset, or do I have to guess?"

"I'm just worried about Reid, that's all. After what happened in Georgia, he doesn't need another blow like this." Emily said still staring at the cup in her hands.

"Are you sure that's all that's bothering you?" Garcia pressed laying a hand on Emily's arm.

"Yes, that's all." Emily answered.

"Right… see you guys think that because I'm not a profiler or that I don't go into the field that often, that I'm blind."

"No… that's not it at all."

"Yes it is, but I don't blame you. Sometimes it takes an objective observer to point out what someone else can't see."

"Garcia… I wish you'd be clear." Emily took a sip of the tepid coffee and decided she didn't need any more caffeine.

"You're in love with Reid," she said with a self-satisfied smile.

"That's not true I -"

"I told you that I know and see all. For your information, you're not good at hiding it and now that the good doctor is missing you aren't dealing with it. You better pull it together before Hotch notices."

"He already knows, I think." Emily said with resignation.

"Well… that's something, at least you're not transferred out of here and he let you stay on the case."

"I just don't know what to do. I know that this isn't about me, but I've never had these kinds of feelings for a teammate before, so I'm a little confused. "

Garcia put her cup down and grabbed both of Emily's hands. "You don't have to do anything, but use that profiler brain of yours to figure this out. You're a very smart woman; just ask yourself what Reid would do!"

Emily looked at Garcia like she's gone crazy, then something occurred to her. It was something she'd seen in the paperwork from the safety deposit box, but she'd disregarded it as unimportant.

"You're right Garcia, let's get back to work. I have an idea."

Garcia stood up next to Emily and patted her on the cheek, "See now that was just eerie, you even sound like him."

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When his eyes opened again, pain was cleaving his skull from the top of his head to just behind his eyes. He was extremely happy to see golden light filling the room from a source to his left. Waking up to darkness would have been more than he could handle.

Bringing his body to a sitting position was a big mistake as dizziness made his eyesight blur. It was like trying to see underwater.

Like that travesty of human life in the other room! Can she see in the vat, or artificial womb, or whatever that thing was?

Just the thought of her-of someone who looked like her-in that place brought nausea back to his raw stomach.

So much for waking up and realizing it was all a very weird dream. He wished it was that he could just turn over and go back to sleep. Then in the morning it would be just one more nightmare to add to his growing stack of bad dreams to be filed away under, "pay the price for your job," heading.

Since that wasn't going to happen, and screaming for help would be useless, he decided that taking a good look around might be helpful.

He'd been holding his aching head in his hands during this short but painful realization that he was trapped. He blinked his eyes and took a good look around. He found it was necessary to blink again and to pinch his arm.

"Ouch…" Okay, so pinching wasn't the best idea, but as the room didn't dissolve into black walls with yellow stripes, he could safely say he wasn't abroad the Starship Enterprise D, trapped in a holodeck fantasy!

"You gotta admit that would be pretty cool Spencer." He said to the wall and to himself.

"Yeah… that's a great way to not deal with reality smart guy, and I'm talking to myself!"

His brain reminded him that he could do that now. He wasn't the biological child of Diana Reid; he didn't have to be afraid of Schizophrenia anymore. That thought knocked him back on the full sized bed he'd been sitting on, the one that was exactly like the one in his bedroom at home. It had the same dark blue comforter he had on his own bed. The sheets were the same light blue with a dark blue stripe at the top.

Except for the dimensions of the room which were a bit smaller, and the fact that the walls were stone and there were no windows, it was identical to his room in his own apartment. A shiver ran over his spine. How could they know what was in his bookcases at home? He got up and walked slowly over to the bookcase that stood in the exact same spot to the left of his bed. He ran a shaking finger over the titles of the books and they were all the same, down to the latest Dean Koontz thriller he'd just bought three days ago.

He swung around and saw the computer desk to the right of the door. It had all the same computer manuals and a laptop just like his that didn't function when he sat down in front of it and tried to turn it on. Crazily he thought of Garcia and wished she were here to fix it. The chair in front of it was a leather office chair, identical to the one he owned. It was like being home, but it was so cold somehow. Was this what others would see if they saw his bedroom? That was it; he was going to throw everything out when he got home and start over.

The door opened behind him and when he turned around, James was there with a tray of food in one hand and a gun in the other. "I trust you're comfortable Dr. Reid."

"You don't call me number seventeen, why is that?" Reid asked. James only smiled. "You can stop profiling me; you won't get the best of me. Now eat something, Dr. Black's coming to see you in about half an hour and you better be ready to co-operate."

He left the protesting Dr. Reid to the food he refused to touch. He figured it wasn't poisoned or drugged, the doctor didn't want to hurt his creation, but the thought of eating made him sick.

The door opened after the thirty minute mark had elapsed. Reid was finishing a game of Black Belt Sudoku in his head that he'd memorized the day before. It was a pity that it was too easy for him!

"Are you ready to learn your true destiny number seventeen?" Dr Black asked, gesturing with his gun to the door.

"I won't do what you want." Reid said firmly.

"Oh I think you will. Why don't I show you what my men have been up to?" He threw something down on the table and Reid picked it up. It was a photograph of his team arriving at the airport. There were two close ups in particular that made it obvious the photographer had been close enough to hurt, or kill the subject in question.

"I'll kill you …" Reid snarled.

"No you won't. I got that close once I can do it again. Now I have something for you that will begin your path to your true destiny."