Title: Obsession
Rating: Mature Teenagers and above (description of crime scene and violence)
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
Summary: Dr. Spencer Reid was not accustomed to attention such as this, and he most certainly was not accustomed to using that attention to achieve such an end.
Author's Note: I understand that I tend to be confusing so I tried to un-confuse this chapter. Hopefully it worked. Thanks for reading. The chapter after this will probably be all Reid and Addy talking if all goes well. This is short. I know. I'm sorry. The 12 hour car ride only led to badly edited images of Reid.

Chapter Nine

Jason Gideon had not been within five hundred miles of Quantico, Virginia for over a year, and, despite his love for people, his eyes never left the road before him as he drove towards the place he had once called home. Hotchner's voice has given enough away with the barely controlled emotion behind the words. Gideon had needed no urging to return because a year of self-induced isolation from his old companions and the steady freeness of traveling had left him to think about what he could say to them now that he was free from the darkness of their job. His feet and car had taken him from the woods of the north to the back roads of Arkansas and Georgia that offered up empty roads and trees bound by eye-catching wisteria, and the hours upon hours of concrete gave him hours upon hours to think of the darkness in his life, rib bones, and future roads to journey down. His foot had never given in to the temptation of ungodly speeds, but now it pressed against the floor as he passed a speed limit sign bearing the number sixty.

Now, on the empty streets of Tennessee, he glanced at the clock and sighed. His manner of leaving had been less that gallant, but he hoped that his return would be welcome. His mind and heart expected cold stares and questioning glances, but all of that would have to come second. Jason Gideon had brought Spencer Reid into the world of darkness and blood, and he would not allow it to get the upper hand over his prodigy.

David Rossi left Morgan in the hallway of the hospital as Reid stumbled through the door to Addy's room, and he worked his way around the streets back to the offices. By the time he stepped from the elevator into the bullpen of the BAU the floor was devoid of any people, and the only sign of life came from the steady tapping of a pen against wood coming from Aaron Hotchner's office. He knocked.

"Dave? How is she?"

"Pretty good considering what could've happened. She gave me some things on the guy that did it, and I think it's probably the same one who did the seven murders. Garcia was right, this guy must have been picking out guys that reminded him of Reid hoping that they could someone stop him, and when they failed he killed them. Apparently, the guy kept saying, "why won't he help me now' when he got to Addy."

"A man?" Something sparked in the back of Hotchner's mind, but he couldn't bring it to thought enough to make sense of it.

"She said it was a young, educated man who was in speech therapy, he wore latex gloves, and he was from Washington D.C. This must be the perk of having your victim be a linguist. She lost a lot of blood and there's always infection, but physically she should be fine except for some scarring. She reasoned out why Reid did what he did-kept asking me why he was there if he didn't need to get a statement. It's a little troubling, but she's fine. Reid was spot on when he said Asperger Syndrome. I just realized that she reminded me of this kid from my high school. Brilliant, but this kid-"

"Dave, I know the attacker."The room stilled. "From a case or from home, but I know that description, and it's just at the back of my mind."

"You can't think of the name?"

"No, just that phrase sounds like someone. Give me the profile of the case with these new revelations added in to it. It'll come to me." Dave nodded and began.

"The unsub is small since he uses ketamine. He doesn't want to get his hands dirty, and he wants to keep himself away from the body to leave a lack of physical evidence. He's intelligent and thinks out the murders from distance to placement of the graves. He probably has some quality that allows for him to get close to the victims for seven weeks that isn't openly threatening. If he's young it could be naivety or sincerity, but when they can no longer live up to his delusion about them being Reid and able to help them, he kills them. He's murdering them as stand-ins for Dr. Reid who he thinks could help him since Reid might have helped him in the past."

It was a voice from the doorway that spoke up first. "Nathan Harris. He came to Reid having dreams about killing prostitutes, and before he went to a hospital he tried to kill himself because he thought it was the only way to save his future victims. Before he slashed his wrist in a hotel he laid Reid's business card on a table. Reid saved his life."

Hotchner pressed one hand against his face. "Nathan Harris…That was the case in D.C. where we had another prostitute killer." He needed sleep.

"Yeah, and Harris was released a year ago when he turned eighteen. His mother took him out, and I bet that's where we can find him. Apparently, they had been letting him out on little field trips where he could go where he wanted and he just had to report back by the check-in time. Security was loose since he was there on his own. It would make since with the 'why won't he help me now' and the drugging. Nathan was intelligent, and he wasn't the largest kid. However, he could easily drug some guy and know how to bury him without touching him. He was pretty reserved when we brought him up here."

The two men met Prentiss's words with silence until Hotchner glanced at Rossi.

"Prentiss, bring Rossi up to speed on the Harris case, and then get back to me. I'm waiting on a phone call. If Harris is the guy then we need to know the how and the why with even more detail and certainty. No mistakes this time."

Hotchner left them standing in his office as he pushed himself up from his desk and walked through the bullpen towards the conference room. Rossi glanced at Prentiss.

"Does the name Lila Archer mean anything to you?"

"Like the actress? Not really. Why?"

"Morgan was talking to Garcia about her at the hospital."

A thump sounded from outside the office, and the two glanced towards the door. Hotchner gestured at Rossi from the doorway. "Rossi, how did Reid look at the hospital?"

"He's blaming himself even though it wasn't his fault. Morgan's trying to calm him down, but I think he'll feel better once he's had a talk with Addy."

"Right. As soon as Morgan comes in with Reid find me." They nodded, and Hotchner turned back towards the conference room. He pressed one hand to his face.

'I should never have put Reid in that position. What was I thinking?'

Fingers tightened to the point of white knuckles around the steering wheel, Jason Gideon pulled the car around a tight corner and did not blink as he felt the momentum begin to pull the car towards the guard rail. The signs flying past his car described the food in the area and the fact that the next exit would take him to Big Stone Gap. The rarely used navigator in his car gave him an estimated time of seven hours to Quantico, and Gideon forced the gas pedal down into the floor.

Another sign passed, and he found himself in Wise, Virginia. Not fast enough…

-TBC-

Right, thanks for reading and please review.