A/N: Thanks so much to Artemis Sparks, lovesreidforever, joniskpelare, msdarque, SlasherrGirl, rya13, Silvermoon of Forestclan, CaseyRachel88, Avenacookie, McGriddle96, smiles2go and inee for the awesome reviews guys! And I'm sorry it's been a few days, I'm still backed up w/stupid college math work, but I'm trying very hard to pretend it's not there. Procrastination is a wonderful invention XD

So, I left you guys on a bit of a cruel note but I assure you all, this mess will eventually be fixed! …I hope… hmm… *evilgrin* Anyway… let's get back to the story, shall we?

-OoO-oOo-OoO-

Chapter Seven

-OoO-oOo-OoO-

"This is ridiculous!" Jane was protesting as Lisbon led Reid out the door looking almost reluctant. For all her insistence that Dr. Reid was a suspect until proven otherwise, she never believed he was actually guilty; Jane was hardly ever wrong and the kid didn't exactly scream homicidal psycho. But evidence doesn't lie.

"Jane…" Lisbon sighed, gripping Reid's elbow gently. He was surprisingly quiet, a faraway look on his face. Maybe he was in shock, she couldn't quite tell. "We found the murder weapon in his hotel room." She said quietly.

Jane's mouth gaped open and he frowned at her. "But… ah… that doesn't prove anything. How do we even know that that's the knife that killed Lila?"

Lisbon sighed and out of the corner of her eye thought she saw Dr. Reid flinch but he still didn't say anything and she almost felt sorry for the young man.

They were standing out in the hallway of the hotel and Lisbon was grateful that there weren't any hotel patrons around to gawk curiously. Now if she could just get Jane to stop standing there glaring at her so they could leave…

"Then we still have the bloody knife in his hotel room that seems sort of suspicious." Lisbon said agitatedly. "Come on…"

"Maybe someone planted it." Jane insisted.

"Jane…" Lisbon groaned. "We'll look into it. Right now, I've got to take Dr. Reid to the station and question him."

"But –"

"It's fine." Reid spoke finally, his voice a bit hollow, eyes still somehow empty and sad. "It's just a mix up."

Lisbon had to hand it to the kid. He had a level head on his shoulders at least. Most people fought or cried or protested but after she'd pulled her cuffs off her belt it was like all of the fight, all of his emotion, just sort of seeped out of the man and his shoulders slumped as he complied.

"See. Let's go."

Jane scrutinized the young man's face, "No. I… I think I'll stay here. Poke around. Get some tea."

His eyes were unrevealing and Lisbon sighed, "Jane, please, I –"

"No, I know. It's your job; you have to do what you have to do. I need a moment to think. I'll get a ride back somehow." He waved her down the hall, frowning with a look of concentration on his face and she shook her head.

"Fine. Let's go, Dr. Reid." She tugged his elbow gently and led him to the elevators. He went with her without much acknowledgement, seeming totally resigned to his fate.

Just as the elevator doors closed on the two of them, Morgan stepped out of his room a few doors down and frowned when he spotted Jane.

"Mr. Jane?" He approached the man confusedly. "What are you doing here? Looking for Reid?"

"Oh, no. I found him." Jane frowned absently, studying the FBI agent for a moment. "And the murder weapon."

"What do you mean?" Morgan was instantly defensive, eyes narrowing at the other man. "What murder weapon?"

"The one used to kill Lila. It was in Dr. Reid's hotel room. Agent Lisbon's taking him to the police station now to question him."

Morgan's eyes got impossibly wide and he gaped at Jane for what felt like an hour, trying to process that information. "What, but… there has to be some mistake. Reid's not a killer. He wouldn't …"

"Of course he wouldn't." Jane agreed immediately, earning a furrowed look from the agent, who had apparently expected Jane to believe his friend was guilty. "Which means that someone is framing him."

Morgan was still frowning and he looked tensed, ready to burst into action and the only action Jane could think he was considering would be to try and chase Lisbon down and get his friend out of handcuffs. Which wouldn't really do them any good at all.

"Someone must have slipped into the hotel room while you were all out and planted the knife. That someone is the killer and is trying to frame Dr. Reid since the Red John ruse didn't work."

Morgan swallowed, still looking ready to pounce into action, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet. "And the hotel security cameras would've caught it."

"Yes, they would." Jane nodded, "But it'll take time to get those. We need one of those fancy warrants unless you plan on stealing the footage and looking yourself, which I have no objection to."

"Warrants take too much time." Morgan muttered, pulling out his phone quickly. "I've got a faster way."

Jane watched curiously as the dark skinned agent held the phone to his ear, face a mask of anger, confusion and determination for a long moment as he waited for the person at the other end to answer.

"Garcia? …I need your help; Reid's in trouble."

~/.\~

Supervisory Special Agent in Charge Aaron Hotchner was bent over his desk, staring at the file beneath his pen. They'd finished up a case a few days ago and had spent the rest of the time filing paperwork and reports. He glanced up at the clock on his desk, sighing. Six o'clock.

His finger twitched on the pen and he had the strongest urge to just flip the folder shut and go home. He wanted to see Jack, he wanted to sleep away the stress and forget about everything that had happened recently.

The case in Philadelphia had been a long and difficult one and then hearing Reid's horrible news from Morgan and Prentiss had only added more stress on top of it all.

He sighed heavily and let his tired eyes drop back down to the file only to jerk them back up when the door opened to reveal a wide-eyed Penelope Garcia, pale and shaking slightly.

"Garcia?" he frowned at her, startled as she took a moment to gather herself before launching into a rapid-fire babble that left his head spinning.

"Oh my God, Hotch… I… We have to get to LA. The CBI people were talking to Reid and they found a knife and they arrested him and he's in a holding cell and Morgan wants me to hack into the hotel security footage and he needs our help and I don't know what to do and Morgan said that they're questioning him now and I-"

"Garcia!" Hotch stood from his desk, head still spinning a bit as he tried to comprehend that. "Slow down… What do you mean Reid's been arrested?"

Garcia swallowed and took a deep breath. "They found a bloody knife in Reid's hotel room and arrested him about an hour ago. They think he killed Lila."

Hotch took all of one second to react, flipping the folder shut, grabbing his cell phone from the corner of his desk and sliding his gun into his holster.

"Let's move. I'll clear it with Strauss on the jet."

"I'm coming too?" Garcia's eyes were wide and expectant, hopeful.

Hotch nodded, already moving down the hall to Rossi's office. "You can look through the security footage on the jet. We need to get there fast. Call Morgan and tell him we're on the way."

~/.\~

Cho stood outside of the interrogation room, looking into the window for a long moment. The kid inside was tall, skinny, and a little bit awkward. Not what most people would think of as a brutal killer. Especially not one who could eviscerate a woman and gash her throat open.

And Jane insisted that the kid was innocent. In Cho's experience, that usually meant he was innocent. But of course, that didn't explain how the murder weapon got into the kid's hotel room.

Cho let his face settle back into his usual mask of non-emotion as he stepped inside, a yellow folder in his hands, thicker than most, and sat down across from the young man.

He seemed a bit nervous, but he controlled his facial expression well. It was his eyes that gave it away. Fear, anxiety, sadness. It all swirled there in those hazel depths.

Cho shifted in his seat, letting his eyes slide down to the folder as he slowly flipped it open, glancing down at the words. It was more act than necessity; he already knew most of the information contained within the file before ever stepping foot into the small room.

"Dr. Reid." Cho let his eyes drift up to the young man's face for a moment. "You've been in the BAU since you were twenty-two. That's pretty young to join the FBI."

Reid's jaw convulsed and he nodded. He knew where this conversation was going. He'd been on the other end of many similar to this. Of course, he doubted he'd ever had quite such an effective technique as Agent Cho.

"Yeah. It's all I ever wanted to do. Catch the bad guys. Understand why they do what they do so I can stop them from doing it again."

"Hm." Cho nodded thoughtfully. "You also have three PhDs and graduated high school when you were twelve. You're a certified genius."

Reid nodded, looking down at his hands for a long moment. "Yes, well, I don't think that really has anything to do with this, does it?" he asked. Cho was surprised. There was an unexpected edge of bitterness in his voice. "We both know that you don't really care how smart I am or how impressive my career is."

Cho nodded, surprised but finding a small amount of respect for the younger man as he held his steady gaze with eyes that really didn't seem to be capable of hiding anything. "Alright. You and Lila were together for two months, yes?"

Reid's eyes burned with tears at Lila's name and he nodded, unable to force words past the lump in his throat.

"That's a decent amount of time. Getting near the first fight stage." Cho said, his voice even, unemotional. Almost robotic. "Maybe you got to her house and you two had a fight. Maybe you got angry."

"So I gutted her?" Reid's voice cracked and he had trouble keeping the tears from overflowing, anger burning in his voice. "I… I loved Lila. I couldn't hurt her."

Cho's face remained stone-like as he stared at the agent across the table. "Dr. Reid, it says in your file that your mother is Diana Reid, is that correct?"

Reid's jaw tightened. He knew where this was going. He nodded tensely. "Yes."

"Your mom was a smart woman too, wasn't she? She used to teach Fifteenth Century Literature. But since you were eighteen she's been living in Bennington's Sanitarium in Las Vegas because of her Paranoid Schizophrenia."

"I know that; I'm the one who put her in there." Reid's jaw was taut with anger, the tears burning his eyes, fingers so tight his knuckles were white.

"Are you aware that mental illness is hereditary?"

Reid's fingers flexed and he practically glared a hole into Cho's unmoving face. "Some studies have supported that schizophrenia may be linked to genetics and it's statistically more likely to develop schizophrenia if a parent developed the disease as well. Nothing concrete has been proven. What exactly are you suggesting?"

Cho shifted, glancing back down at the file, feeling almost guilty for saying what he said next, though his face and eyes revealed nothing of that guilt.

"You're a brilliant man, Dr. Reid. Smarter than most smart people. You have an eidetic memory, you read more words in a minute than most average people can read in an hour. When you were younger you talked to a therapist after your father abandoned you and that therapist concluded that you exhibited warning signs for a mild autism spectrum disorder."

Reid's eyes widened. "Those records are sealed!"

"They're in your file with the FBI. They tend to make a habit of knowing everything about the people they hire." Cho said swiftly before continuing.

"So maybe you weren't in your right mind. Maybe it wasn't you. Did you even consider that, Doctor? Maybe the reason you don't know how the knife got in your apartment is because you weren't really 'you' when you killed your girlfriend."

"NO!" Reid's hands were shaking, his eyes wide. "There's nothing wrong with me! I'm in perfect mental health!"

"You're certain of that?"

Reid's jaw nearly cracked it was so tight. "Absolutely. Every agent undergoes periodic Psychological Evaluations. My last one was three weeks, four days and roughly six and half hours ago figuring for the three hour time difference." He answered. "I'm sure it's somewhere in my file."

Cho rifled through the papers and produced one, scanning it quickly before looking back up at Reid. "The BAU came up with these questions, didn't they?"

Reid looked surprised that the agent knew that, but nodded slowly with a sigh. "Yes. And if I wanted to, I could provide the necessary answers to keep myself in the field despite failing mental health, but schizophrenia is not something easily hidden for very long and I would never endanger lives of innocent people by lying about my mental stability to keep my job. I understand very well the risks and the possible repercussions that could develop if I tried to hide something like that."

Cho's dark eyes studied Reid carefully. "Then explain why Agent Lisbon found a bloody knife in your hotel room."

"I told you, I don't know how it got there." Reid's voice cracked and he leaned back, pressing his lips together. "I don't own a butcher knife, Agent Cho and I've never seen that knife before in my life."

Cho leaned forward, "But you know how it looks, don't you? Lila took out a policy on her life worth a million dollars and you get half of that money now that she's dead. You conveniently discover the body after an unexpected phone call brings you here, you knew about the Red John case. You could have easily made it look like his kill."

"If I had read the case file, I could have." Reid's voice was hard, his eyes dark. "But I hardly knew the specifics of the case. All I know about Red John is that he's a prolific serial killer, probably a sexual sadist who uses his knife and the act of evisceration as a substitute for the act of sexual intercourse. And he leaves a red smiley face in the victim's blood on the wall. If I were going to copy a serial killer, I'd know better than to break his pattern and I wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the knife in my hotel room and allow a state agent to find it simply by moving a suitcase."

Cho was surprised by the change in the young man's demeanor. "Then how did that knife get there, Doctor?"

"Obviously someone else snuck into the room and put it there." Reid ground through his teeth.

"Why?"

"I don't know! To frame me!" Reid scrubbed his hands through his hair, "Agent Cho, I did not kill Lila. I love her." His voice shook and the tears were back. He looked down and took a breath. "The man who killed her is still out there and you're wasting your time talking to me. I'm innocent!"

"That's what they all say." Cho sounded unconvinced, flipping the folder shut. He looked back up at Reid, folding his hands in front of him and staring unblinkingly at him. "Convince me, Dr. Reid."

Reid's watery, angry eyes didn't move from Cho's dark ones. "I did not kill Lila." He said, his voice hard and intense. "I loved her. I would never hurt her."

Cho stared back at Reid for the space of a heartbeat before standing, chair scraping against the floor, picking the folder up and leaving the room without a glance back for the young man who seemed to be struggling to keep his emotions in check as he stared down at his clenched hands.

~/.\~

Lisbon met Cho outside of the interrogation room, arms folded.

"What do you think?" she asked, glancing in at Reid through the blinds. He looked like he was fighting back tears and possibly trying to set the table on fire with the powers of his mind.

"I think he's innocent, just like I told you." Jane's voice made her jump and she whirled around to see the consultant standing there, that trademark grin on his face, flanked by two unfamiliar people wearing guns and badges.

"These are Dr. Reid's colleagues. Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss." He motioned to the two people. "Remember I told you he had friends willing to fly across the country to be with him?"

Lisbon forced a smile and glared daggers at Jane. "I… Yes. Um…" What exactly was she supposed to say? I'm sorry for arresting your friend? Jeez, this kind of thing only happened with Patrick Jane around.

"Agent Lisbon." Morgan held his hand out, shaking it briefly. His and Prentiss's eyes went immediately to Reid through the window, a mixture of worry and determination on their faces.

Lisbon nodded, "I'm sorry about this… I know he's your friend, but we found a knife in his hotel room, Agents. We can't ignore that." She fixed them with her most serious face, though the guilt didn't lessen any.

"We understand." Prentiss spoke up before Morgan could, knowing he probably wouldn't be the best at expressing his feelings correctly. "But you're making a mistake. I know Reid and he isn't capable of killing anyone."

Lisbon eyed the other woman and sighed, "Look, I get it, he's your friend and you don't want him to be guilty, but I can't cut him loose unless I have evidence that says he's innocent."

"Someone's framing him." Morgan insisted. "You need to look at the security footage."

"We're working on a warrant now." Lisbon assured him. "It's going to take some time; the hotel doesn't like that their patrons are being 'spied on' so they're fighting us on it. It'll take some time. We aren't going to charge him with anything until we get a look at the footage, but that won't be until tomorrow morning most likely."

"What if you didn't need a warrant?" Jane suggested, grinning widely.

"We always need a warrant, Jane. It's procedure." Lisbon frowned at the man. "We can't see the tapes without it."

"Agent Morgan has a way." Jane insisted, glancing toward the man with an excited smile on his face, his blue eyes dancing.

"What way?" Lisbon frowned, looking up at the other man skeptically. There was no way to get around a search warrant, especially one for security tapes. It wasn't like they could just burst in there and watch them anytime they wanted. The hotel had to hand them over willingly, which wasn't going to happen, or hand them over after ordered to by a judge.

"Our technical analyst in Quantico, Garcia. She's the best computer analyst in the bureau. I called her and she's looking for the footage now. She should be able to send it to you in a couple of hours."

Lisbon blinked, "Wait… She's hacking into the hotel security footage? That's illegal!"

"How do you think Garcia started working with the FBI?" Prentiss raised a brow. "She's good at what she does. She's going under the radar. It's not like the footage will be used as evidence. You'll get your warrant eventually, but the sooner you release Reid, the faster we can figure out who really did kill Lila."

Lisbon frowned, "I don't like this." She insisted. "It's illegal, we can't just hack into a hotel's security footage."

"We're not." Jane insisted. "Garcia is. Like Agent Morgan said, by tomorrow morning you'll have the footage yourself. This way saves time and effort and we can get back to the real investigation."

Lisbon pressed her lips together. "We don't even know that someone did plant the knife!"

"Someone had to." Prentiss's voice was quiet as she looked past the shorter woman and into the interrogation room. "Reid didn't kill anyone."

Lisbon sighed, glancing back to Cho. "Cho, what's your take on Dr. Reid?"

Cho hesitated, glancing toward the agents and Jane's grinning, wide-eyed face. "He's not the type to kill. Even when I made him angry he didn't display violence. He's guarded, upset and angry, but I don't like him for this."

The Senior Agent sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and thinking. "Van Pelt!" she called, looking up when the young woman hurried out of the bullpen toward the small group.

"Yeah, boss?"

"What's the analyst's name?"

"Penelope Garcia." Morgan answered, hope sparking in his eyes.

Lisbon nodded, "Talk to these Agents. Set up a web-conference with their analyst. I want to talk to her."

Jane grinned wide as Van Pelt nodded and Prentiss and Morgan reluctantly left the hall to follow her back to the bullpen. "I knew you'd come around eventually."

Lisbon rolled her eyes. "I'm being open-minded. That doesn't mean I'll watch the footage, I just want to know who I'm dealing with here, that's all."

Jane shrugged, "You can't fool me, Lisbon. You like Dr. Reid; you know I'm right."

Lisbon sighed, glancing back at the young man in the interrogation room. "Maybe… Maybe there is something sort of… sweet about him, but that doesn't mean he isn't guilty. He still could've killed Lila."

"Oh please woman, you're such a cop. You don't believe he's guilty any more than I do, just admit it."

She sighed, "Ok, maybe he doesn't seem like a killer but there's a lot of evidence that suggests he is."

"All circumstantial." Jane reminded her. "You don't have anything concrete."

"I think the bloody knife is sort of… concrete." Lisbon said, smirking at him as he led her to the break room.

"Not if it was planted, which it was." Jane insisted, opening the cabinet and frowning. "Why don't they have any blue teacups?" he pouted, reaching inside to pull out a foam cup and stare at it dejectedly.

Lisbon rolled her eyes at him. "I guess the LAPD just doesn't have your sophisticated sense of drinking utensils, Jane."

He frowned at her, "You jest, but this is hardly the appropriate way to appreciate a cup of tea. It's a disgrace, Lisbon, an utter disgrace!"

She snorted, "Take it up with the Chief, I'm sure he'd love to hear how the foam cups upset your tea-sensibilities. Right now, we've got a murder to solve."

"Meh, you've already arrested the wrong man. We're off to a fairly rocky start, aren't we?" He raised a brow, puttering around looking for the tea bags and the teapot with a disgruntled look on his face.

"Boss," Rigsby stuck his head around the corner. "Van Pelt's got the laptop set up for you when you're ready."

"Thanks." Lisbon watched Jane angrily search for the proper utensils to make his tea and smiled, shaking her head. "You and Cho talk to Dr. Reid's friends, would you? Get their take on the relationship, alright?"

"On it." Rigsby ducked out and Lisbon turned back to Jane, who was placing a small silver teapot on the stove.

"I'm going to talk to the FBI analyst…" she said slowly, watching him for a reaction. He grunted but stared down at the pot and she sighed. "Wanna join me maybe?"

"I'll be right there. Listen, from what Agent Morgan says, Garcia's a real… character. Just to warn you."

Lisbon smirked, "I think I can manage a technical analyst. Don't be too long, alright?"

He nodded absently, staring down at his reflection in the pot and marveling at the lengths it seemed Dr. Reid's friends were willing to go for him. He was surprised to think that Lisbon and the rest of the team would probably do the same for him if the situation were reversed and that gave him an oddly warm feeling in his chest as his eyes went from the pot to the foam cup dejectedly.

Stupid, ill-equipped LA police department. How could he possibly drink he tea out of that stupid cup and be able to focus on getting Dr. Reid out of that interrogation room and back to finding his girlfriend's killer like he was supposed to be doing? It would be no small feat, that was for sure.

~M/CM~

A/N2: YAY! The BAU is on the way!

Whew… I did not expect that chapter to be so long…

But I'm happy with how it turned out at least. I had a bit of writer's block at the beginning but half-way through the dam broke XD

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Please let me know what you think! Your opinions mean the world to me guys!