"Dr. Reid."

Strauss called Spencer into her office almost as soon as he got to his desk. He was sent back under the guise of consulting with the CIA, but that was Hotch's call. He had no reason to know why or how the CIA would be involved. Nothing he could tell the others, at least.

He walked into her office to find her standing shoulder to shoulder with his old handler, Eagle. Something was absolutely wrong.

"Agent Faulkner." The genius murmured uneasily. "Apparently I was right about this case having to do with Roadrunner."

"You could be, but that's not why I'm here." Eagle offered. "A few hours ago, the Calvins put out a hit on the aliases of every Roadrunner they've come across. You need to go underground."

"That's likely not an option."

"Your job will be here when this is all over." Strauss insisted.

"Thank you, Section Chief Strauss, but that's not what I meant. If everyone sent to deal with the Calvins started going underground, wouldn't that give them a better shot?"

"You misunderstood, Dr. Reid. Officers who dealt with the Calvins can no longer associate with Roadrunner. We have no resources to spare. You all will, quite literally in some cases, be on your own." Faulkner informed the BAU agents. Spencer deflated and closed his eyes.

"This was a courtesy." He realized.

"It was."

"And the others?"

"Have gotten similar messages from their handlers. I've done so thrice already."

"Thank you for your time."

"Good luck." Was all Faulkner said before he slipped out of the room.

"Do you have any ideas?" Strauss wondered.

"A few." Spencer offered, throat thick. "I can't just pick up and go when my face hits the papers. Like I said, it'll lead them straight to us. I'll have to figure something out. Thank you for the information. May I take my leave?"

"Dr. Reid, I'll be seeing Agent Faulkner out. Please don't leave before consulting another agent first. We need to handle this with everyone's safety in mind… good luck." Strauss murmured. Spencer nodded his thanks and shuffled out of the office.

"What'd Strauss want with you?" One of the agents from BAU Team Beta wondered when he got back to the bullpen.

"Confirmation. Hotch mentioned a new development so she wanted to cover all her bases."

The lie slipped out easily enough, and though he despised it, there were some things they just didn't need to get wrapped up in. They would… eventually. His goal was to keep them out.

He spotted the Unit Chief for Team Beta on the steps and walked over to him.

"Strauss is paranoid about this new case and wants to make sure I consult someone before I head home."

"Did something go wrong on the way back?"

"The new development I was talking about, it's volatile information and someone from the CIA was here to consult on the case. It shouldn't be anything too big, but just in case-."

"Dr. Reid, I'm not sure you're alright to go home yet." Faulkner's voice rumbled through his earpiece as well as from Strauss' doorway and Spencer turned to find that he was standing with Strauss just outside her office now.

"Why not?" Spencer wondered what story Strauss had come up with to keep the rest at bay.

"You've got someone on your trail, potentially a few people. There's no way you're leading them straight to your house." Faulkner insisted.

Vagueness would have to be enough, for now.

"Reid's got a stalker?" Beta team member Gina LaSalle parroted, alarmed.

"You'll take some agents and get essentials, but you can't stay there tonight." Cooper decided.

"Thank you." Spencer said, allowing that to be the end of the conversation.

The door was locked when Spencer led the members of Team Beta to his apartment. He slid his hands through the hinges and scanned the top of the door. Something was different about the house. Either someone was already there or they had been.

He went inside unimpeded and found his apartment completely empty. That didn't stop his colleagues from checking every room in what ways they knew how.

"Pack a bag, Reid, you can hole up in Quantico for now." Cooper ordered.

"Sure, watch that blow up in my face as well." Spencer scoffed. "There's nothing here so my partner must have packed my things and I would know if I were being followed."

"Fine. I'll see what Strauss thinks about a guard detail. Meanwhile, one of us should stick around."

"There's no reason for it."

"If you have a stalker-." Special Agent Rawsom began.

"I have a cat." Spencer corrected. "She's enough to fuck up any routine a stalker could hope to make up for me. Besides, my partner should be here any day now. Between the two of us, I'm perfectly safe."

"Well said." A new voice broke into the conversation and everyone turned to the hallway that led to other rooms in the apartment. A light-skinned woman with red hair and eerie brown eyes leaned heavily against the entrance. "I've met some of you before, but I'm Layla Jones. Reid was my partner when he consulted with the CIA and I'm the reason this place is bare-bones right now. Reid, you probably should pack a bag."

"Where are you going?"

"Following a lead, if I make it that far."

"That doesn't sound promising. We could just head south, check on Loka and his family."

"They are expecting us for dinner." The redhead mumbled breathlessly.

"Did you get shot?" Spencer wondered, keeping his mouth open and tilting his head back. "I smell blood."

"Not mine." The newcomer mumbled. "Just tired."

"I can see that." He snorted. "Go back to sleep, my team's paranoid and wanted to make sure I got home alright."

The redhead attempted to straighten up.

"Is it paranoia if they really are out to get you?"

"No." Spencer offered easily, amused. "but that's what you're for."

"This is what we get for bringing our work home with us."

"Yep. And I just remembered why this case got cut short."

"Cut short? For what?"

"Layla."

"Listening."

"I need you to be completely honest with me."

"Always have been."

"Has your earpiece gone offline?"

"It's limited somehow. I don't know why."

"Have you heard from your handler recently?"

"No. But I assumed that had something to do with the earpiece being weird."

"It does." Spencer confirmed.

"Are we being set up? Do you think they'll get some of us to take the fall?"

"I don't know what to think yet. Go back to sleep. I've got the first watch."

"Are you sure about this, Spence?"

"You're no good exhausted like this. Get some rest."

"Yeah, sure. G'night."

The redhead, Layla, ambled off, leaning heavily on the wall as she shuffled down the hall. Spencer turned back to his colleagues.

"You can go now." He offered wryly.

"So that wasn't your stalker." Rawson noted.

"I thought those rumors about you having a life outside of work were just that." SSA Beth Griffith snickered playfully.

"She knows something about the case you just worked." Cooper realized. "You mentioned it got cut short. And what was that about earpieces?"

"It's no longer my problem." Spencer insisted. "At least, not officially."

"So you're taking the CIA's advice?" Cooper prompted.

"No." Spencer informed him. "I'm making sure my friends are alright. I can't afford to take their advice."

"You should if it saves your life." Cooper urged.

"I'm telling you that it won't. I know what I'm doing. My training isn't forfeit."

"No, just your common sense." Mick groused.

"You can go now."

"I'm not sure about this." Beth insisted.

"I know what I'm doing. You can go."

Cooper narrowed his eyes at Spencer and eventually nodded.

"Technically, I did what I said I would."

"And you'll know if you need to do more."

Cooper nodded and stormed for the door. One by one, each less sure than the last, the rest of the team followed.

Spencer made his way to the back of the apartment the second the last member of his team left. Layla had been right to say that the blood in the air wasn't hers, but that begged the question of whose it was. Because it was fresh. He stopped when he got to the guest bedroom. None of his colleagues had superhuman senses. He sure as hell didn't. So it was safe to say that while he knew someone else was in the house, he wasn't expecting the scene before him.

The back of his neck tingled as a man who looked to be a few years older than he stepped in front of him. Well-dressed in a white tuxedo and a black shirt with a red bow tie, the newcomer looked far more elegant than he could dare to dream. However, his focus remained on the man's face. Pale from years indoors, eyes an electric blue and black hair slicked back into a ponytail for tonight's events.

Pelitreo Calvin was in his house. Pelitreo Calvin was bleeding out on the bed in his guest bedroom. Pelitreo Calvin looked very much like he was dying, and Layla was doing her damndest to stop it.

Spencer wasn't as surprised as he could have been. If anything, he was more shocked by the wounds the man received than his mere presence.

"He's one of us." Spencer noted warily. Someone had attempted to sever his left ear and Layla was having a very difficult time keeping it attached to his head. Spencer didn't exactly have to wrack his brain to recall where he'd seen similar wounds.

"I think so. It could be a way for the Calvins to mark traitors." Layla objected.

"We're being marked as traitors, alright." Spencer scoffed. "But who would want to chop off his ear? And… can you even sew it back on?"

"All I can do is stop the bleeding." Layla murmured worriedly. "We need to get him to Dr. Loka."

"He's a psychiatrist-."

"So he'll know at least the basics. He can't die here, Spence, he brought me home! We need answers."

It felt good to be included in decisions like this. He knew when he joined the FBI that he revoked all rights to knowledge of Roadrunner's current dealings, even if he did get the occasional profiling job from them. Layla shouldn't be including him in any of this… but the organization was cutting her off. Agents with even the slightest connection to the Calvin case would be cast aside for the sake of plausible deniability.

There were quite a few problems with this, chief among them that they were being hunted.

"Where's Link when you need him?" Spencer groaned, running a hand down his face.

"That's complicated." Layla offered as she continued to patch up Calvin to the best of her ability.

"Okay, so we'll get to that when the guy's ear is firmly attached to his head."

"Thank you."

"Meanwhile, how are we getting to Loka with a wanted criminal? It's definitely not happening in broad daylight."

"Where do you need to go?" The previously still man rasped with what seemed like the last of his strength.

"What?" Layla asked, confused. "Be still, I can't botch this."

"Where do you need to go? Give me coordinates."

Spencer did.

"Now, come here. Both of you, grab my hands. Skin contact."

Layla hesitated but took his hand when he reached for hers. They disappeared the second they made contact, and Spencer realized that he hadn't quite seen what happened. He's been forced to close his eyes. Calvin was back on his floor, bleeding through his nose and both ears now. Spencer rushed forward, bunching up his jacket in an attempt to stop the bleeding but the second he made contact with what looked like a broken nose, he was in Loka's living room and forced to a sitting position by the force of whatever just happened.

"Let go, Dr. Reid." The older man's voice was always a comfort in desperate times, but how had he gotten to Loka's living room when he was states away?!

"Ask him later, Dr. Reid, this man is dying!" Loka's wife, Vivian, pulled him away from the now unconscious man and into the dining room. She pushed him into a chair beside the one Layla sat in. He turned to find that the former Roadrunner was shivering and her eyes were clouded.

"He just started bleeding out of nowhere." She murmured. "and then he disappeared again. Is he like Link?"

"Is that how he got you back to the house?" Spencer wondered.

"No, he… flew. Shifted into a bird. At first, I thought that was his power, but then he-. We just teleported, Spence, I thought that was Link's thing!" She choked out.

"Skin contact." Spencer muttered suddenly. "He said to make sure we maintained skin contact. What if that's it?"

"He's, what, a Mirror? Those are myths-."

"When has anything we've encountered from Roadrunner been a myth?" Vivian chided gently.

"They weren't kidding about the fact that we'd have to kill right out the gate, why would they lie about people who can copy us?" Spencer chuckled bitterly.

"I thought they meant, like, doppelgangers! Not… not this!"

"You're not the only shifter in the world, just like Reid isn't the only empath." Vivian offered. "A true Mirror is rare, but he seems to be one. Would you turn your backs on him now?"

"What for? He's how we get to Link and so far he needs us alive as much as we need him." Layla grumbled. "It's just… he flew us to a dockyard and we sailed across miles of ocean. As a cat and a bird. We fucking boat-hopped. It took us days to get back to the house from his place and I think there were people trying to kill him while we were on the way out. And all that is on top of the fact that, apparently, we're cut off!"

"Here, drink this." Vivian murmured soothingly, wrapping Layla's hands around a cup of steaming liquid.

"Tastes like honey." Layla murmured after a sip.

Spencer was also given a cup, a mug with the Starbucks logo and Seattle in dark green letters on it.

It did taste like honey. Honey and chocolate. A strange combination, but it worked. He felt… really good all of a sudden.

"What is this?" He wondered.

"Strength elixir. Special brew of mine."

Vivian wasn't quite a mad scientist but she was very good at knowing what chemicals played well and what happened when they did. It figured that she would have what amounted to a healing potion.

"It will exhaust you, so sleep. Your friend is safe with us. There's time to figure this out tomorrow."

Spencer had too much on his mind to object and apparently so did Layla.