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Chapter 10

As he snapped the lock of his suitcase closed, Reid began to feel a little better, like some of the oppressive weight had been lifted off of his back. He had just gotten off the phone with a travel agent, who was currently searching for the first available flight to Las Vegas for him. Reid hoped she would find a red-eye flight, then he could leave late tonight and be in Vegas early tomorrow morning.

This afternoon, while he had been sitting on his bathroom floor, recovering from vomiting his anguish into the toilet, Reid had decided that in order to start moving forward, he needed to get away from the city for a while. He figured it would be easier to start seriously planning his future away from the BAU, and the people in it. Knowing they were only a few miles away, made it difficult for him to forget the nasty trick they had played on him; it was also hindering his resolve to never work for the FBI again. Reid hoped his mother was in a relaxed state when he got home to Vegas, as he really needed someone to talk to about everything that had happened, and she was one of the few people he trusted implicitly. In the back of his mind, Reid knew he could always talk to Hotch, or even Rossi, they hadn't been involved in making the video, but he wanted to talk to someone unbiased on the side of the BAU. Maybe later, once he had it sorted and organized it in his head, and in his life, he would talk to Hotch. For a brief moment, Reid wished Gideon was around, he would have been able to talk to him about all this; but he too had betrayed Reid, in a way, by running off without a word, or backward glance at his young protégée. Even though he had left a letter, he hadn't left any way to contact him, so that was a dead end thought.

Reid shook his head and moved his suitcase to his front door. He was getting an open ticket because he wasn't sure when, or even if, he would be coming back. He made a short phone call, then went into the washroom for a quick shower. Now that he had some concrete plans in place, his mind began to flow a little more freely, and he started to contemplate speaking to the Dean of the university in Las Vegas about picking up some work as a researcher. Reid heard his phone ringing, 'hopefully that's the agent', he thought, pondering if he should run to pick it up; but since he was already undressed, he decided to leave the message machine to get it. As the warm water cascaded down his slim back, Reid lathered up his hands and began washing himself, wondering if his future would be in Las Vegas, with his mom….

Morgan and Prentiss were gazing at the victim board, trying to find a tie, a similarity between the elderly victims that would give them a hint as to why the Unsub chose them, and clarify his profile a bit more. Prentiss heaved a sigh; they had been at this all day, throwing around thoughts and ideas, guessing at a motive, debating points about the murders.

"You know, this would all be a lot easier if Reid was here to help." Prentiss's voice sounded tired, irritated. She knew it was down to them that Reid had quit, but she also figured that Reid must know how much they needed him and his genius brain on the team, why did he have to quit? Prentiss was actually missing Reid more than she liked to admit, even to herself. She had grown up always moving due to her parents careers, so had difficulty forming lasting attachments with people. This was one of the first jobs where she actually became close to each team member, and she was really feeling the loss of one of them. Prentiss, not used to being so emotional, gave herself a mental shake, deciding when they got back to Washington she was going to try and get Reid to see her, and if necessary she would go down on bended knee to beg him to come back to the BAU where he belonged, and where they desperately needed him.

Morgan knew they needed Reid, he didn't need Prentiss to remind him of that obvious fact; no one knew better than him, how much they all relied on Reid's intellect, his eidetic memory and his ability to speed read. Morgan also knew he very much needed his 'little brother' around; to tease, to mentor, to be friends with. Almost since the first day Reid joined the BAU, Morgan had felt responsible for him, had felt he needed to be his protector. Even after all of these years, Reid was still the same awkward, socially shy, geeky genius, albeit with more life experiences; and Morgan missed him. And he agreed with Emily, if Reid was here they would probably be farther along with their investigation. Morgan heaved him own sigh, also deciding to once again go to Reid's apartment, and demand Reid let him. Morgan wondered what he was up to right now….

As he sat in his car outside of the apartment building, Derek Danger thought about his plan. He had actually devised two main plans, with variations of their executions depending on the circumstances. Plan one depended on his 'Reid' leaving the building, so Derek had been parked on the street since just after 1:00pm. Derek knew this plan was a little chancier, as he would be snatching the young man out in public, where the chances of being seen, or stopped, were extremely high. On the other hand, the extreme thrill he would get from succeeding would have been worth the risk. Thinking about it made Derek shiver with excitement; his adrenalin started pumping as he pictured in his mind how it would have gone down.

But, his 'new boyfriend' had not emerged from the building, and now it was after 7:00pm, so Derek knew he would be reverting to plan two. This plan would take more work on Derek's part, but the likelihood of success was almost guaranteed. Derek had worked it out, every angle; he had brought along everything he would need for it to go smoothly. The only way it could fail would be if someone caught him, or if his long unused skills deserted him. This was unlikely, but since he wanted to be absolutely sure, Derek knew he couldn't wait any longer, he needed to get up to Doug's apartment now.

Derek slung his heavy knapsack over his shoulder, and nonchalantly walked up to the door. Pretending to search in his pocket for his keys, he glanced over at the buzzer board hoping this building still printed the last names of the tenants under their buzzers. No go, modern times meant anonymity was the norm, only the apartment numbers were listed. 'Well it was a long shot anyways' Derek thought, quickly opening the door of the building and heading to the elevators. On his way up to Doug's floor, Derek wondered if Doug's body had been discovered yet. He smiled as he remembered what fun he had had last night, his hand still ached a bit from 'playtime.' Derek wasn't concerned about the police, he knew even when Doug was eventually found, they would have an extremely difficult time identifying him, he had made sure of that. Derek had actually read about shredding the fingertips in a true crime book; he just hadn't realized the first time he used that maneuver, how much he would enjoy doing the actual cutting.

Once Derek let himself into Doug's apartment, he hurried over to the alarm system, and quickly punched in the numbers he had found in Doug's wallet. He had just known they were an alarm code; he had taken it as another sign from Fate that he was meant to come here and get 'Mr. Right'. He knew it was more than likely his 'Reid' would have an alarm as well, but Derek had experience with installing alarms, so was confident he could disable it with ease. In fact, he was going to be relying on many of his old manual skills this night; so after a quick look around Doug's small apartment, Derek slipped on the surgical gloves he had brought with him, and began to study the locks on the door….