A/N: Hello again, everyone!

A shout-out to AHowell1993, supergirl superman, WinterWonder5, Betty and Sandman17 for either reviewing Chapter 56, favoring, and/or following the story. The occasional scenes from episodes of Criminal Minds in this story belong to the writers of Criminal Minds and CBS. No copyright infringement intended.

My apologies if I had made any mistakes but please do enjoy the chapter!

Also, I would like to credit AHowell1993 for helping me with this chapter.


Previously on Criminal Minds…

"Hey, babe. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I feel a throbbing in my head," …"I think I'm getting a headache."

"Maybe you should go lay down?" …

Reid kisses Élise's palms, "You're so good to me."

"Hello, Dr. Barnes. What's the outcomes of the MRI scans?"

"Well, your scans are perfectly normal, and there doesn't seem to be any physical explanation for your headaches."

"So, there's nothing wrong?"

"Well, have you considered a psychosomatic cause?"

"Well, it's actually more than just one." […]"You're over-stressing yourself, which is natural because of your job […] Your diet has more sugar than my father's diabetes. You squint a little too much because of your love for reading. […] Are you worried you'll end up doing what your dad did to you and your mother?"

I just…I worry…

"Look at me. […] You are absolutely nothing like your father. You are going to be the greatest, smartest, strongest father that our girl will be the luckiest girl in the entire world…

"I also want to make some changes."

"What kind of changes?"

"…Instead of sugary coffee, I'll drink more water and perhaps decaf. […] As much as it pains me to say this, I'll…try and…read less."

"It's a good thing I made an appointment to see an eye doctor. it would help your head feel better with a stronger prescription for your contacts and glasses."

"I love you."

"And you know I love you."


Reid was in the kitchen, enjoying a nutritious salad Élise made him the other week when,

"Spencer…" Élise singsonged for Reid as she stepped into the house. "I have a surprise for you."

After finishing up his meal and washing his plate before putting it in the dishwater, he hurries into the living room when,

"Oh!"

Élise sports off a new hairstyle: a fringed, chin-length chop but still keeping her glossy black-brown and polished but shaggy bangs.

Reid smiled before kissing her cheek, "Don't you look pretty?"

Élise shrugs her shoulders, "I needed something new and fresh. Plus, it was on my checklist on what to do before the baby arrival's."

Reid strokes his fingers through his hair, "Maybe I should get a new haircut."

"It's still short, just the way Aunt Ethel likes it."

Reid chuckled when Élise mentioned Aunt Ethel before she asked,

"How are you feeling, babe?"

Reid gently shakes his hand, "I've been feeling much better. Better than ever."

"See what happens when you eat better and healthier, drink less sugary coffee and more water and sugar-free coffee?" Élise replied.

Reid responded, "As well as a stronger prescription for your contacts and glasses for your eyes, especially when you're reading. And you know I can't help it when it comes to reading."

"I still enjoy reading to you." Élise cuddles closer to Reid.

Reid giggled in response.


"Look at your baby girl," Dr. Patterson gave Élise and Reid the new sonograms.

"Every time I see her, she gets more and more bigger and stronger." Élise felt a tear coming down in her eye.

"I know," Reid agreed, slightly feeling a thump in his throat. "She's so beautiful."

Dr. Patterson smiled, "Her organs are fully developed now, even her eyebrows, eyelashes, and her toenails and fingernails are completed. Her inhaling amniotic fluids give her lungs some practice."

"And much like her mama, she's putting on weight." Élise points to her 32-week belly.

"Now that you're officially on your eighth month," Dr. Patterson gets her clipboard, "It's recommended that you make sure you stock on 10 micrograms of your daily Vitamin D..."

"...Since Vitamin D protects and helps the baby build their bones and they will rely on the vitamin for the first few months after birth." Reid continued.

Dr. Patterson nods her head, "Mm-hmm. Do you plan on breastfeeding?"

"Yup." Élise self-assuredly answers. "I'm nervous but…"

"It'll be a real bonding experience." Dr. Patterson assured her. "Exercise?"

"Mostly walking with the occasional yoga, Pilates, and toning."

"Okay." Dr. Patterson nods her head. "Have you been feeling any symptoms lately?"

Élise cocks her head to think for a moment, "A bit of swelling, leaky breasts, itchy skin."

Dr. Patterson advises, "For itchy skin, try calamine, cocoa butter, oatmeal, or Vitamin E lotion. For leaky breasts, make sure you're still using your pads. And for swelling, elevate your legs, lie on your side, don't sit or stand for too long and soak your feet in warm salt water."

"I can do that."

"And definitely stay calm and relaxed. There may be a case of increased mood swings during the third trimester."

Élise smirked, "It hasn't happened yet."

"Never say never."

Élise swears, "I'll be as calm as the wind."


"SPENCER!" Élise yelled, almost made Opal jump who was quietly sleeping.

Reid rushes into the living room and stood by her side. "Yes, lovey?"

"Come closer," Élise motions him to come closer, whispers.

Reid grins, "Yes?"

"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME!?"

Reid startled, massaging his ear, innocently asking, "What did I…?"

"LOOK AT ME, YOU IDIOT!" Élise points to her big belly.

Reid tries to comfort her, "Why, you look…"

Élise snarled. "I'M FAT! THANKS TO YOU, YOU STUPID GENIUS!"

"You're not fat; why you're the beautiful mother carrying our baby."

"I am?" Élise immediately blushes.

"Yes, you are," Reid assures her by giving her a peck on the lips. Giving her more compliments, "In fact, you are the sexist prosecutor not just in DC, but all of America. Why, unsubs shiver at your name, Élise Gabrielle Bastien-Reid."

Élise licks her lips and raises her eyebrows.

"They would have to beg on their knees not to be in the same presence as you."

"Aww." Élise gets him a kiss back. "I'm so sorry, brains. I guess Dr. Patterson was right about the mood swings. Promise me that when I have these damn mood swings or when I start to threaten you that you won't take them seriously."

"I promise."


"Well, this is a look that we haven't seen in a while," Morgan remarked when he noticed Reid having on his browline glasses.

Rossi noticed as well, "Since when do you wear glasses?"

"Since Élise's raging pregnancy hormones caused her to flush my contact lenses down the toilet since she wants me to wear my glasses more often and give my contact lenses a break every now and then," Reid explained. "I haven't worn these glasses in about four years, a month and week, and two days."

"Guess she got her point across," Moran chuckled before joking, "You look like an illegitimate son of Malcolm X."

"Ha-ha." Reid dryly replied.

Rossi comments, "Well, you look very distinguished."

"Thanks," Reid said just as Prentiss and Garcia walked into the roundtable conference room,

"Is he an ex? International booty call?" Garcia intriguingly asked.

Prentiss assured Garcia as they took their seats, "No. He's a friend."

"Where's Seaver?" Rossi asked.

Prentiss answered as Hotch walked in and began passing out the case files, "She had to take a test at the Academy."

Hotch began the briefing as Garcia pulls up images, "I know we've all seen the news. Mass murder in Miles City, Montana. Six people shot and killed at a gas station."

Prentiss guessed, "Robbery?"

"No apparent motive," Rossi said.

"Any security footage?" Reid asked.

"No." Hotch answered. "No cameras, no witnesses, ballistics say we're looking at two shooters."

"Well, something at the station must have triggered them," Morgan responded. "It doesn't look like they had much of a plan."

"And it may happen again." Rossi figured. "Spree killers often repeat themselves."

"Well, let's not waste any more time." Hotch declared. "Wheels up in ten minutes."

As the team left the roundtable room with the case files to gather their things at their desks, Reid texted Élise that he and the rest of the team were heading to Montana. A few seconds later, Reid gets a text back from Élise.

I HATE YOU.

Another text.

BUT BE CAREFUL.

Another text with a picture.

IF NOT…

A knife.

Looking over Reid's shoulders, he snickered.

"Mood swings?" Hotch presumed.

Reid nods his head in responses.

"I guess that explains why you have your Malcolm X glasses." Hotch joked.


After the team visited the crime scene in Montana, Prentiss and Reid went over to the M.E.'s office, with a man who was a bit shorter than Reid; yet almost around Prentiss' height, short spiky brown hair, dressed in medical scrubs, leading them to the bodies.

"I mean, I've seen dead bodies before, but this is insane." The M.E. tech commented. "They're like Bonnie and Clyde. They smashed one guy's vertebrae so bad, it looked like a derailed train."

"Extreme brutality to this degree is what's known as an obliteration attack," Reid explained. "The unsub wants to completely erase these victims from existence."

As the M.E. tech unveiled one of the victims, "Both of the vics were shot at point-blank range."

"What made those?" Reid observed the brutal bruises.

"That was a crowbar." The M.E. tech answered just as he pulls out another body from the freezer.

"The unsubs are becoming more and more confident, which means their weapons are becoming more and more personal. The excitement of the brutality allows them to overcome their human inhibitions." Reid said before asking, "Why is this one covered?"

"It's the store clerk." The M.E. tech said. "Guy got it pretty bad."

Reid slightly lifted the sheet and to say the clerk got it pretty bad was an understatement. Covering his face again,

Reid said, adjusting his glasses. "In medieval times, it would just be another Monday."

"He was sodomized with a tire iron." The M.E. tech further explained.

"That kind of overkill suggests he was the root of their aggression." Prentiss guessed before deduced. "Maybe they're zeroing in on what's really pissing them off."


Now getting a call in over 100 miles west of the previous gas station, the team rushes over to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting place in Helena. While Prentiss and Morgan were outside, Rossi, Hotch, and Reid were inside.

"So, they steal the liquor from the gas station, they go on a binge, and then they come to a meeting?" Hotch wonders as he looks around the crime scene.

"What if the unsubs met at a meeting?" Rossi guessed before figuring, "They hear each other's stories and develop a bond because of their similar backgrounds."

"That makes sense." Reid began to think about when he first started taking Dilaudid over four years ago. "People typically drink to excess because they're unhappy with themselves or their past."

Rossi points to the head of the seat from the crowd just as Prentiss and Morgan came back into the room, "From the looks of it, at least one of the unsubs shot from upfront."

"Well, if the meeting started at 8:00, and this happened at 8:45, they were probably in the sharing portion of the meeting."

"So maybe they didn't come in here to kill." Morgan supposed.

"You know, what if they really are struggling with sobriety?" Reid empathizes. "If they're really working the program, they could be working on the hardest steps."

"Which are?" Hotch asked, noticing Reid was talking about his own experience with addiction.

Reid listed, "7, 8, and 9. Acknowledge your shortcomings, accept responsibility, and make amends. The trouble is these unsubs already broke one of the most important steps."

Morgan asked, "What's that?"

"The thirteenth step. Members aren't supposed to enter relationships with each other while trying to get sober."

"We need to deliver the profile." Hotch declared.

"Let's do it." As Rossi, Morgan, and Prentiss left the room,

"Reid." Hotch stops him and whispers, "I'm proud of you for staying sober."

"I am, too." Reid smirks to himself, "It wasn't easy, though."

"Are you staying sober for your little girl?"

"Of course."


Reid and Hotch had just finished speaking to Mrs. Donovan, the mother of the male unsub, Ray Donovan, just as Morgan and Prentiss just came out of the trailer house. Prentiss had Garcia on speaker,

"Ok, so, no Ray Donovan filed for a marriage certificate. However, I looked at that list again, and there's a Sydney Manning of Washington State who filed for a marriage certificate 2 days ago in Montana."

"Washington State? We profiled North Dakota." Hotch said.

"Yes, she's lived in North Dakota for the last 4 years, and it gets better, or worse, rather. It turns out that Sydney was sentenced to mandatory rehab after serving time for a hit and run during which she was under the influence of alcohol and heroin." Garcia corrected.

Prentiss spoke up, "Oh, so she didn't volunteer for alcohol support."

"No, she was placed there as part of her parole."

"Alcohol and heroin. Isn't that the same combo that Ray's ex OD'd on?" Prentiss asked.

"Yes, it is, my friend."

"So, both Syd and the ex have the same vice," Morgan said. "Garcia, check to see if there's any juvie records of the ex we can access."

"Amy was pulled out of high school so she could go to rehab for alcohol dependency."

"But no mention of the heroin?"

Prentiss asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Psychopaths will destroy anything in their path," Morgan replied. "What if Amy was in Sydney's way?"

"Garcia, where is Sydney Manning's biological family?" Hotch asked.

"Spokane, Washington."

"And why was she pulled out of her home?"

Garcia replied, "Her father was molesting her."

"So, Ray and Syd did meet after sharing similar backgrounds in alcohol support." Reid said.

Prentiss added, "And if they're sticking to the pattern of making amends, Sydney's father's next on the list."

Hotch orders, "Reid, you stay at the command center in case they double back. The rest of us are gonna go to Spokane."


Reid continued to watch on the television in the command center his team handle the hostage situation at the female unsub father's gas station when he gets a call from Hotch,

"Hey, Hotch." Reid answered. "I'm still watching it right now."

"Yeah." An exhausted Hotch exhaled.

"Are you sure you don't need me?" Reid asked.

"We got it," Hotch assured him. "Considering how you were in a hostage situation last week and seeing well you're handling your headaches and migraines; I don't want to risk it. Plus, you have a mood swinging 32-week pregnant wife, so…"

Reid nods his head, "Most definitely."

BUZZ!

"Speaking of which…" Reid noticed a text from Élise.

PLEASE BRING ME SOME FOOD WHEN YOU LEAVE MONTANA. I'LL HURT YOU IF YOU DON'T!

"And if I don't get her some food before we leave Montana, she'll hurt me."

Hotch snickers to himself before hanging up and focusing again on the hostage situation.


"Thank you again, agents, for your help." Agent Bates graciously said as the team was packing up their belongings.

"The pleasure is ours." Rossi said

Agent Bates asked, "Did you all know how this was going to end?"

"In a way, yes." Rossi answers.

Agent Bates asked again, "And do you think Ray realized that you guys were telling the truth about Sydney killing Amy, which was why he strangled her to death?"

"No doubt in my mind, yeah," Morgan responded.

Reid looked at his cell phone again, "And speaking of minds, I need to get my 32 weeks pregnant wife some food before we leave or she'll do bad things to me, putting it mildly."


"Mmmm," Élise chewed. "Never in my life have I had huckleberry ice cream. But now that I have, it's so doggone creamy and delicious."

"Wait until you try the cinnamon rolls," Reid said before eating a piece and smiled at Opal sleeping in her pen.

Licking her lips, "What's wrong, my smart bunny?" Élise places her hand on his cheek, noticing a slight sadness in Reid's eyes. "Was it me threatening to kill you or hurt you? I..."

"Of course not," Reid assures her. "Prentiss was reading on the plane ride home and she came across a quote by William Glasser. 'What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today.' Do you think that's true?"

"In a way, yeah." Élise truthfully answers. "Like Jenny from Forrest Gump; what Forrest said, 'Sometimes I guess there just aren't enough rocks.' I do get it when things happen, but at the same time, we can't let our past dictate our future or even our present now. Because then the past will always win and take power over us."

"Mm-hmm," Reid nods his head. "I, uh…addiction was brought up in the case and…"

"I know." Élise began comforting him. "I know."

"I'm still staying healthy, strong, and sober for our girl and all of our future children."

Élise smiled, "And that's another reason why I love you so much."

They engage in a passionate kiss.