Author's Note:

First: 100 Reviews! 100 Reviews! Yay! You have no idea how long I have been waiting to see that number for one of my stories. I don't care that it took 40,000+ words to get there. It is still an awesome amount. And I will try to squeeze variations the names of some of my most regular contributors in the story in an unobtrusive way. (My apologies if I miss some of you.)

Chapter 21:

"So you guys left us behind to track down the Reaper," Mick said lightly when he and Erica arrived at the police station at around five a.m. in the morning. "Have they changed the laws about federal agents claiming the reward money?" He placed his file folders and his e-tablet on the table in the meeting room. "If I'd known that I would have stuck around to help and finally buy that sports car I've been saving for."

Morgan, Rossi, and J.J. were at the other end silently nursing cups of coffee. Morgan persuaded J.J. leave Reid's apartment around midnight to get some rest, since she was going to be the main speaker at the early morning press conference.

Erica was not enthused. "Really Morgan?" She said and slammed her bag on the table. "You couldn't tell us you thought Un-Sub who plagues my nightmares might be here? I thought we were a team."

Morgan looked at her. She looked angry, confused and not nearly as miserable as he felt on the inside. But he couldn't let it show. "Erica it was just one of those feelings I get. I had to take a closer look at something and look what I found."

Erica glared at him. "And what if your gut wasn't right? What if that guy hadn't been attacked"

"Morgan you don't have a gut," Garcia said accusingly as she walked in wearing a wild blue print dress. "You only have muscle. You're brilliant but you couldn't have possibly come up with all those aliases just from reading a notebook written by someone who had been in coma for years. Someone who's now missing and-"she suddenly sniffled

He pulled her into a hug before she could escape. Garcia insisted on coming after Morgan called her late at night with questions about information they found in Reid's journal. According to his "timeline" the Reaper had been caught and killed a few years ago. But his notes about Foyet's aliases matched each of the different areas he had been hunting in since the deal ended. Morgan couldn't blame her for feeling confused and overwhelmed. He just hated having another team member in the room he had to lie to.

"Everything's going to be okay baby-girl," he said soothingly. "We'll find him and we'll make sure no one ever hurts him again."

Garcia pulled out quickly. "I know. I know," she said, taking deep breaths. "And I'm here to do whatever you need to finally get this creep." She went to the middle of the table and began to open her computer bags.

Erica was staring at him with silent rage. "Be careful not to make promises you can't keep," she said. Morgan forgot how much catching the Reaper meant to her.

Morgan couldn't help but glance at Rossi who shook his head. There were no notes of wisdom for to do in a situation like this.

He motioned for everyone to sit down. "Okay, guys I know this is one complicated situation. I know you all have questions for what I, Rossi, and J.J. and I promise you will have answers. But first we need to get some key information out to the police and the press about George Foyet." He hit the table with his fist. "Not 'The Reaper,' he's just another mentally unstable Un-Sub who has developed a god complex."

Mick raised his hand slightly. "Do we have any actual evidence to tie him to the murders? There's an electronic paper trail but can be construed as circumstantial by a good lawyer. Can we prove that he committed any of these crimes?"

Morgan pulled out a photo of Reid taken from his Octavian University ID card. "That is why it is imperative that we find Spencer Reid. A messenger bag found at the scene of the last murders has been identified as belonging to him. When we entered his apartment we found evidence of struggle. It also appears Dr. Reid was re-examining Foyet's murders based of the notes found in his apartment, which may be why he is the target."

"Doctor Reid?" Erica said. "When did he become a doctor?"

"He has PhDs in Math, Chemistry, and Engineering," he said automatically before he could stop himself. In his journal he says he recently earned a fourth in philosophy. "The point is Foyet thinks he's interesting because he came very close to identifying him. Interesting is good in this case because there's a good chance we can find him alive."

"But in what condition?" Penelope asked anxiously.

"We just have to hope for the best baby-girl," Morgan said evasively. He had a feeling the answer involved finding him tied up and hand-cuffed to a chair pumped with drugs. Foyet has his own methods, but what he gets off on is fear. And there probably isn't anything more terrifying to Reid than what Tobias Hankel did to him according to his writings.

"The main thing now is to get message out to the press," Morgan said. "Last night all we could do was stress vigilance, but today we can announce at the press conference we have a photo and the name of a person of interest in a series of murders whose most victims include Peter Redwall, Sandra Zach, and the abduction of Spencer Reid."

"So are we going to give law enforcement a profile before that?" Mick asked.

"We don't have enough information to build a solid new one," he replied. "We need to go over the evidence collected from the recent murders to see how it fits a pattern to help us catch the guy. What's most important is getting his image out to there and people will be on the look-out especially because of the possible reward money."

When he finished he noticed the that Elle, Mick, and Garcia were giving him, Rossi and J.J. mystified stares.

"What aren't you guys telling us? Erica asked.

"Nothing that you need to know right now," Rossi responded in an intense voice that silenced many a Un-Sub.

This didn't seem to deter Erica. She looked to Rossi and J.J. "And why aren't either of you asking questions about this sudden discovery of the identity of a Un-Sub who has been evading us for years?"

J.J. glanced at the clock. "I need to prep for the press conference." She began to gather her notes and stand up.

Morgan did his best to maintain an unreadable face as he looked at his two field agents. "Guys, I'm going to need you along with Rossi to be up on the stage with to show that we have our best agents on the case to assist in apprehension of Foyet.

Mick began to put his notes in a folder. "Even though we don't know nearly as much about our 'person of interest' as people might think.'"

"That is just something we all need to live with for now," Morgan said sternly.

…

J.J. found a small corner in the building to go over her speech in private and get her bearings. But all she could think of, or maybe envision was Reid or "Spence" is what he claims she liked to call him, showing her son magic tricks at her wedding.

"J.J., are you okay?"

She turned around to see Rossi watching her. She looked at him pleadingly. "Rossi, he knows the first song Will and I danced to our wedding."

"J.J. you've got to push out of your mind what you read about yourself in that guy's journal," he said softly.

Suddenly she felt tears in her eyes. "He claims to be the godfather of my son. I can't imagine Will's partner not being there to-"

"Then don't," he said. He gently patted her arm. "Just read your statement for the press conference and we'll go from there. To I don't know where, but you've got to trust that we'll figure something out okay?"

J.J. slowly nodded. "What we need is Spencer. And I need to do my job to get him back."

Rossi smiled faintly. "Now that's the spirit."

As they walked to the conference room together J.J. said: "You know reading how I could hold my own in a fight sounded very appealing."

"I did like the line where I said I swore I'd never pick a fight with you," Rossi said.

…

J.J. did an incredible job. Morgan didn't think he could have held it together as well as she did. She sounded passionate, but not overly-emotional as if everything she knew about her life might be wrong or part of a very detailed delusion of one man.

Rossi hung back as the rest of the agents left the stage once the press conference wrapped up.

"So do you still want me to manage the case from the field office while you return to exploring Pandora 's Box with J.J.?" Rossi asked.

Morgan nodded. "The situation there is still too complicated. I'm not ready to let them in and find what looks like madman's wall of conspiracy theories that might actually prove to be useful."

"You can't avoid them forever Morgan."

He looked to Rossi desperately. "Rossi is he worth it?" he asked feeling weak. "Believing that some crazy super-natural force could change everything about our lives?"

Rossi looked at him with equal sadness. "I don't know Morgan. I just don't."