Chapter 9

As he spread the shaving foam across his stomach, Derek Danger knew he had to be extra careful while he shaved his body today. He didn't want any nicks to mar his skin, wanted to be perfectly smooth and soft for his 'Reid.' Derek slowly dragged the razor up his torso, carefully rinsing the blade after each stroke. He still felt exhilarated from his 'playtime' last night with Doug. He had posted some of the pictures he had taken of Doug posing, onto a few kink sites he occasionally frequented, when he didn't have a 'boyfriend' at hand, and they were getting a tremendous response. Tonight, though, tonight was the night he had been waiting for, longing for, the 'BIG' night; tonight he was going to be bringing his new 'boyfriend' home.

As Derek's mind turned to the thin, handsome man from the video, remembering how he looked lying on the bed, Derek's body began to get excited. Derek froze for a moment, as he was shaving below his belly button, just as his groin reacted to his thoughts of 'Reid.' Unsure for a moment if he should ignore it and continue shaving, Derek decided he'd better take care of himself first, safe in the knowledge that he had ample time to get his body exactly how he wanted it. So, he placed the razor on the ledge in his shower stall, coated his hands in the foam still left on his stomach, moved his left hand around to stimulate his behind, grasped himself with his right hand and proceeded to have a wonderful time while replaying his 'boyfriends' video in his mind; while repeating the deliciously disgusting dialogue that he loved, aloud.

Thirty minutes later, freshly shaved and moisturized, Derek was getting dressed when he decided he'd take a walk after his breakfast. He wanted to go over his plan again, making sure he accounted for every possibility; he knew a brisk walk in the cool air would make clearing his mind and concentrating on his plan a lot easier. Luckily for him, because it was Saturday, his schedule was a little more flexible in the morning; he didn't want to have to punish himself and mark his skin. Derek looked at his smooth, muscled chest and stomach before he buttoned up his shirt, knowing it was perfect, knowing he was perfect, confident his new 'boyfriend' was going to be very happy. Derek smiled at himself in the mirror. This night was going to be the happiest night in his whole life, he just knew it, could feel it in his gut. 'Mr. Right' was finally coming home….

The homicide detective stared down at the battered body in the alley. He sighed, taking a moment to glance up at the blue sky and wish this had not been his Saturday to work. The victim was his second dead body today and it wasn't even noon yet. This scene was by far the worst, made even more difficult by the fact that the heavy rain last night had virtually washed everything clean. Detective Green had been doing this job for over five years now, and knew that in this scenario, evidence, including DNA, would be very hard to retrieve. Unless the perpetrator had been stupid enough to leave his DNA inside the body somewhere, they would not be finding him by that sometimes simple route.

That the unknown suspect was a male, Detective Green was absolutely certain; the level of damage to the body was way too high for a woman suspect, especially the strength it would have taken to literally bash the man's face in. He sighed again, realizing identifying the victim was going to be almost as impossible as the suspect, since the head basically had no recognizable face, most of the fingers were crushed and the skin on all of the finger tips had been shredded, making fingerprints unlikely. The detective knew someone had spent a lot of time and effort on this murder, had made certain there would be no incriminating evidence; someone like that was unlikely to have left anything anywhere on the body. Detective Green started making notes in his pad, already certain in the back of his mind, that this poor guy would probably remain a John Doe, his murderer uncaught, until he was eventually buried by the city, in an unmarked grave.

The detective hoped that the attack was personal, as the injuries seemed to indicate, done by someone with an especially big 'hate on' for this victim; he didn't want to even consider that this might be a new serial killer starting up. Unfortunately, Detective Green had a very bad feeling about this murder scene; a gut feeling that this was going to turn out to be an extremely bad case….

As the theme music started at the beginning of the movie, Star Wars, Reid sat in his living room wondering if he would ever feel anything resembling 'okay', again. He had been working diligently to mentally rebuild his emotional fortress, which had always protected him in the past; had done a pretty good job considering it was less than a week since his world exploded. Unfortunately, when Reid let his guard down, it all still seemed so raw. Especially in his quiet, lonely apartment. Reid had hoped watching one of his favourite movies would alleviate his overwhelming depression a little; at least let him escape into fantasy world for a few hours, as he had during other painful times in his life. But, if anything, hearing the opening music was making him feel worse.

Reid remembered the last time he had watched this film; it had been when the local movie theatre had been replaying some of the classic movies of the 70's and 80's. Reid had gone to nearly every one of them, as these decades were his favourite for movies. When Star Wars had been shown, he'd actually convinced Garcia, Morgan and Prentiss to join him. They'd had a blast, mainly at Reid's expense of course, especially when he quoted the dialogue along with the characters on screen, but it had all been in good fun. They had even gone for drinks afterwards at a nearby bar, and Reid had done the team proud during a trivia tournament, winning numerous rounds of drinks for them all. The happy memory taunted Reid, relentlessly reminding him of how much he had lost. Due to those very same people.

Reid felt tears start to seep between his closed lashes, his stomach burning while the anger, humiliation and grief churned through him again. It was just so unfair, he had been so happy; he's loved his job, and the team were like family. And now? As he raced to the bathroom to empty his stomach, Reid wondered if he would ever stop hurting.