A/n Thanks to everyone who has reviewed and commented through messages. Here's the next chapter

Reid woke at 11 am that morning. He rolled over and looked at the clock, and was stunned that he'd slept for eight hours straight with no dreams again. Then he remembered what had happened the previous morning, and he sat up abruptly. He shouldn't have slept that long and left Karen alone. She was so upset.

He got up and hurried into the shower, he needed to get back to the hospital and talk to her. He needed to make sure she was okay. He gave up trying to analyze the strong hold she seemed to have on him. He decided to go with it, and see where it went.

He wanted coffee, but there was no time. He wanted to be there before she was released, so that they could talk privately before the rest of the team descended on the hospital. He'd get coffee at the cafeteria. He was pulling his cords on when his phone rang. Damn it, there wasn't time for this right now! He debated ignoring the call, but if he didn't answer Hotch would be very unhappy with him. Besides, he would never ignore a call from a team mate, or his boss; he just wasn't the type of person to do that.

"Reid," at least he wasn't being yanked out of bed again.

"Reid, we just heard that Detective Harrison arrested someone that Agent Hathaway believes to be our un-sub."

"What… how…" his brain was whirling again. Here they had done all the work, and a police detective may have broken the case?

"Listen; just meet us at the hospital. We need to get Agent Abbott released, so we can get back to DC. I'll fill everyone in on the plane."

"But Hotch -"

"Gideon will be knocking on your door in a minute to drive you and Morgan over there."

"What about JJ?"

"She's still there, she never left. She has been talking to the press, and trying to stem the tide of misinformation about the case and Agent Abbott."

Reid said goodbye to Hotch, and closed his phone, and sat down heavily on his bed. It was too much to handle. This had to be the strangest 24 hours he'd ever spent in his life, and that was saying something. Well… there was nothing for it; it was time to go home. He found that he didn't want to go back to DC. He wanted time away from the office, and the strain of everyday life to sort out what he was feeling for Karen. The last day had been such a whirlwind of activity, and changes, he felt like he'd been sucker punched several times.

He ran a hand through his hair, pushing the stray locks behind his ears. He grabbed his glasses, and his messenger bag. He was heading for the door when there was a soft knock. It would be Gideon; he never pounded on a door like Morgan always did.

What was he going to do about the team? It was obvious they didn't trust Karen. He couldn't understand why, she seemed like a very nice person. He opened the door to Gideon, and the older agent stepped into the room.

"Reid, how are you, did you get some sleep?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, listen Hotch just called me and I'm stunned."

"Yeah, well I don't know the details yet; we'll talk about it later. Listen Reid I know that you're upset with me because I made you work things out with Morgan but -"

"It's okay Gideon, we're good."

"May I ask why you were fighting in the first place?"

Spencer felt his face get hot again. The last thing he wanted to do was admit to his boss that he'd had a crush on JJ all of this time.

"Ah - Gideon it's nothing, just a disagreement. I just want to forget about it, and get on with my life."

Reid could tell from Gideon's face that he wasn't buying the story, but the older agent wisely said nothing. The younger man would come to him on his own when he was ready. Besides, Gideon thought he had a pretty good idea what was going on, which is why he wanted to find out all he could about Agent Abbott.

They left the hotel room and took the elevator down to the lobby so Reid could check out. Morgan was waiting there, and he smiled at his partner as they left the hotel for the SUV in the parking lot.

"Hey my man, you look much better than the last time I saw you, did you get some sleep?" He grabbed Reid's suitcase, and stowed it in the back of the truck

"Yeah, I'm good."

They got into the truck, and Morgan took the wheel with Gideon next to him and Reid in the back seat. The day was sunny, and already hot enough to make air conditioning a wonderful thing. The sky was a deep sapphire blue, and was completely cloudless. Somehow it was brighter now that the un-sub had been caught. Reid only wished they could have found him before he killed little Kylie Webster. He thought her face would probably be added to all the other victims that haunted his dreams.

A terrible thought also hit him. What if Karen's battered face took its place amongst the victims, and the babies of his nightmares. He didn't think he could handle that. It was bad enough that … No… he refused think about JJ, there was someone else now, someone who seemed to like him for himself, and he refused to screw it up.

Are you sure that Karen is the one you want, or are you only trying to escape your feelings for JJ?

That damned internal voice. Why wouldn't it shut up and leave him alone? "Hey Reid, you doing ok buddy?"

"What - oh yeah Morgan, just thinking that's all."

"Okay, but I say you think too much my friend." He smiled at Reid by way of the rearview mirror, and it wasn't a smile that meant to hurt, it was a smile of genuine concern.

"I suppose you're right Derek."

He smiled back at the older agent, and Morgan noticed that the smile didn't touch the young man's eyes. He didn't push it though; his partner had to work out his own women problems. Now that's a problem he never imagined that Reid would have, more than one woman chasing him. Whether he knew it or not, JJ was definitely noticing him, and he was willing to lay odds that what JJ wants, JJ gets. Besides, he didn't like Karen, and agreed with Gideon that they needed to know more about her.

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Karen Abbott sat on the edge of her hospital bed. He face was a mass of healing bruises, and the cut on her lip was less prominent than it had been the night before. Her head was pounding, but not as badly as it had when she had been admitted. At least they had good drugs here. She looked up when JJ entered the room.

"I hope you won't be upset that I'm here. The doctor said you are ready to be released, and the guys are on their way over here."

"Why are you still here? I was so mean last night; you don't have to be here now."

"I know, but - well I can't imagine going through what you did, and I know that you were really upset last night. I'm sorry if I contributed to that."

"It's okay; I should be the one to apologize. I was just afraid. I never thought that I would have to kill someone. I mean I'm an agent, but I never planned on actually pulling the trigger, especially on a fellow officer. I just don't get it, why did he do it?"

JJ sat in the chair next to her bed. "I don't know Agent Abbott, sometimes there are no answers to the questions. Sometimes people do things for the sheer fun of it. That's one thing I've learned working for the BAU."

"Agent Jareau, why do you hate me, I've never done anything to you, but when I came into the conference room, and started to talk about the un-sub you were acting like I was Typhoid Mary." This came out of the blue, and JJ was so startled, she nearly spilt everything, her feelings for Reid, and her suspicions of the new agent. She bit back hard on that desire, and when the door opened, and Morgan entered followed by the rest of the team, she sighed with relief.

Reid looked at her with an odd expression on his face. She stood up and moved to the back of the group. She was hiding, and she despised herself for the impulse but she couldn't help it. She didn't trust herself to look into Reid's eyes anymore. She didn't want him to see what was in her heart. He wouldn't understand, and it would make an already complicated situation worse.

"We're sorry to barge in on you Agent Abbott, but the doc says you can get out of here."

"So you still want me to be on the team."

"Well yes, we know that what happened was an act of self defense. We're going back to DC, and you still have to go through an evaluation at the Bureau, but we still want you to be a part of our team." Hotch stayed grim, but his eyes were relaxed. Gideon was regarding her with a mixture of sympathy and interest. She thought that maybe he might trust her one day, she wasn't sure about Morgan or JJ.

"The doctor wants you to follow up with your own doctor when we get back so make sure that you do. I want to know what he says. And you're off the field list for at least a week."

"But Agent Hotchner, I'm perfectly fine I just - "she had stood up, and stepped toward him, some indignation at his assertion that she needed time off, apparent in her face. Then she swayed, and would have fallen if Hotch hadn't caught her.

"Yes, I can see that you're just fine. Now will you listen to me?"

She nodded and Hotch helped her sit down. "Okay I'll stay away for a week, but then I want to come back to work." Her eyes flashed at the two men, daring them to say no to her. For a minute she reminded Hotch of Elle, and he quailed internally. But this wasn't like that; this had been a righteous shoot.

A nurse came into the room with a wheelchair, and Hotch helped her into it. "This is so dumb, I don't need this chair, I can walk just fine on my own."

"It's hospital policy dear." The nurse was about five four and white haired. She looked like she had seen her share of battles with patients, and Hotch had no doubt she'd come off the winner in most of those confrontations. She just had that look about her that older nurses had, the one that said, "Don't mess with me!"

Karen had the good sense not to argue with her, and they made their way out to finish the paper work, to get her released. JJ moved to the front of the group when they left, so she could deal with the press that was still out there.

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As soon as the jet was in the air, Hotch began to relate to the team what had happened to Detective Harrison. He had apparently gone to see Detective Lange's cousin. The man lived outside of Phoenix on a defunct cattle ranch. He was an artist. He wasn't famous, but he had a large enough following that he was able to live off the sales of his paintings. He traveled a lot for his art, and was known for his landscapes of the desert.

His name was Donald Rice and he looked a lot like Detective Lange. Their mothers were sisters, and they had the same auburn hair, but Rice was taller. He'd let Detective Harrison in the house very reluctantly. As it turned out, he'd already grabbed another little girl, and hadn't had time to hide her in the old storm cellar on the property. He thought that with the chaos occasioned by his cousins shooting, which had been all over the news within hours after it happened that he could snatch another girl, and there would be less heat.

Detective Harrison had been asking him questions about his cousin, to see if the other man would know of any reason why his partner would attack an FBI agent. Rice was extremely agitated, and when Detective Harrison heard the girl scream, Rice pulled a gun on him. Luckily, the detective was able to subdue, and arrest him without firing a shot, or getting the girl hurt.

"That still doesn't explain why the detective attacked Agent Abbott."

"He was angry, sometimes people do stupid, and dangerous things when they're pissed."

"Yeah, but Hotch, don't you think that's a little over the top?"

"I don't know Morgan, maybe he knew what his cousin was doing, and he thought that by distracting us, he could take care of the problem himself, I don't know."

No one could argue with him, and no one wanted to, at least not at that moment. They were exhausted, and unwilling to deal with all that happened in the last 24 hours.

Gideon stood and crossed to the other side of the plane. He sat down across from Reid, and asked him for a game of chess. It wasn't long before they were engrossed in the game, and the others were asleep, except for Karen, who was sitting at the other table, listening to her hot pink I pod. She'd pulled something out of her bag, and it looked like she was working on some kind of a puzzle.

By the time Reid lost to Gideon, again, she was leaning back in her chair with her eyes closed. Reid stood, crossed the aisle, and sat down across from her. He noticed that she was working on a Sudoku puzzle. He pulled it toward him, and studied it for a minute. He smiled and picked up the pencil she'd been using, a long purple one with yellow smiley faces on it.

"Don't touch that… unless you want to lose a hand."

His hand jerked back guiltily, and he looked up to see one of her whiskey colored eyes was open, and staring at him.

"Ah - sorry I was just going to -"

She opened both eyes, and pinned him to the soft leather chair with a look. "Do you make it a habit to wait until your teammates are asleep, and then solve their puzzles?"

"Well, I like Sudoku, and I was just checking to see how you were doing." He looked so contrite that she began to feel a little guilty that she'd reacted the way she had.

"Uh huh, well I like to solve them myself; I'm kind of funny that way. I'm sorry I freaked out on you."

"Its okay, I mean the last couple days haven't exactly been a walk in the park."

"I don't want to talk about it Spencer, or think about it. I just want to do my puzzle, it helps me relax." She pulled the ear buds of the I pod from her ears and put it away in her bag.

"Ok well, I'll leave you alone." He was very disappointed, but he understood the desire to shut out reality. He often wanted to do the same.

"No!" she said, too loudly actually and immediately blushed, so much for trying to be discreet. She liked Spencer but the whole team didn't have to know, at least not yet. Of course she forgot the part about them being profilers. She didn't realize that everyone on the team looked out for the young agent, in fact keeping an eye on young Dr Reid often translated into a full time job.

"I mean, you don't have to go, it's just that I want to figure this out for myself and - well you're a genius and…" She trailed off, her face turning crimson.

"Can we just start over, and pretend that I didn't say anything… please?"

Reid watched her eyes, and he knew that she hadn't meant to be insulting. She wasn't like the kids he went to school with, or even like some of the adults he knew.

"Its okay, I have a bad habit of pushing what I know on other people."

"I don't think that at all."

"You haven't been around long enough to hear one of my rambling explanations about anger excitation rapists, or the composition of India ink, or one of a thousand other things. It drives most people crazy."

"Well… I guess I'll have to wait to see that part of your personality."

"No one ever said that they wanted to hear me ramble."

"Then most people are idiots, I think you're a very interesting person."

Reid flushed and turned to look out the planes small round windows. The sky was a solid blue in all directions. Sometimes when they were flying home, he would look out the windows, and pretend that he was the only person in the universe. After a particularly difficult case, it often helped to soothe his frazzled nerves. Now it was an escape from the directness in her eyes. He didn't want to look too closely at those eyes; he didn't want to drown in them.

He looked back at her, and she was studying him with a strange look, and then it was gone, and she smiled shyly at him. The bruises on her face reminded him that he couldn't escape forever, sooner or later; the evil they dealt with reared its ugly head to take a bite out of their sensitive souls.

"Are you okay Spencer, you looked very sad for a moment." He'd wanted to say the same thing to her. She had a right to be sad, someone had attacked her, and she'd had to kill that person. He knew what that felt like.

"I'm ok, I was just thinking that I can't wait to get home, I so tired."

"Oh, well everyone else is sleeping so why don't you get some sleep as well."

"No," he said a bit abruptly and flushed again. "I mean I'd like to talk to you, if you're not too tired."

"I'd like that too."

She pulled the puzzle book to her, and began to study it. "If you put a 9 over there and a 5 there…" he began to point out to her. She glared at him good naturedly. "Dr Reid!"

"Okay, I'm sorry… you solve… I'll watch."

"I'm sorry; I tend to get a little territorial when it comes to puzzles. My friends at home used to call me the puzzle princess; I was always working on word finds, or crossword puzzles. It was always a bad idea to give me a new jigsaw, because I would work on it non stop till it was done, it used to drive my mom crazy…"

She stopped talking, and her face went white where it was free of bruises. "Karen, are you okay, are you in pain."

"I'm fine it's just that - well my mom died two years ago, and sometimes it just hits me that she gone."

"I'm so sorry Karen, losing your mom is the worst thing that can happen."

"If you don't mind my asking, are you speaking form experience Spencer?" Normally he would've made up a polite excuse not to talk about it, but suddenly he found himself telling her everything about his child hood, and his mother, including how he'd had her committed, and the feelings of betrayal he had to live with on a daily basis.

"I'm sorry Spencer, I had no idea."

"How could you, we only met 34 hours ago?"

"It seems like it's been so much longer than a day."

"I know it feels like a week's gone by since we were on the plane and flying out to Arizona."

Her face clouded over and she said with finality. "I wish we'd never gone out there!"

"I'm sorry Karen I know what you must feel -"

"No you don't… you weren't the one that had to kill someone."

Instead of becoming angry he only regarded her with his lovely eyes that were so sad, she instantly regretted her harshness.

"I had to kill someone once." He said so softly she almost didn't hear the words. His eyes never wavered from hers as he spoke to her, and she knew that he wasn't telling a convenient lie to make her feel better.

"What happened," she asked him, and he heard the regret that laced her voice.

He related the story of Phillip Dowd to her, and she found herself nodding when he told her of how he killed the man who threatened all those lives. He thought he'd come to terms with it, but he found as he talked to her his voice began to whisper, and he felt the salt of tears in the back of his throat. He struggled mightily to keep his emotions under control. He refused to cry in front of her. That was for later when he was alone, and no one could see, and judge him as weak.

"I'm so sorry you were in that position Spencer, but you did what you had to do, right?"

"Yeah, but I didn't like it."

"Good, no one should enjoy killing another human being; it's what keeps us apart from the people we hunt, our compassion for others."

"I know I hope that if you ever need to, you'll talk to me." He flushed at his own words, and suddenly found the top of the table very interesting.

"Thank you Spencer, you're very sweet."

The pilot announced final approach, and as if on cue the others began to wake up, and prepare for landing. Spencer and Karen were silent for the rest of the flight, each lost in their own thoughts.