First of all, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my story and especially to everyone who has reviewed it. I've been thrilled to get so much positive feedback. Enjoy Chapter 6.

On a funny note, I am watching tonight's episode (3/22) as I type this in and I hear the quote I had chosen for Reid in my last chapter used by Gideon at the beginning of the show. Guess I'm going back to the quote site to find a new quote!

Greyshell Middle School

Mrs. Lorenzo had not been entirely thrilled about her staff and students potentially being in danger. Nevertheless, she did agree to allow Ms. Miller tobe at school that day– with the offered security measures of Agent Morgan staying in her room and additional agents being outside the school building. Hotchner admired the principal's fiercely protective nature – he felt the same about his team.

The day had gone by uneventfully. Hotchner was amazed by the constant flow of traffic in and out of the school: students arriving late or being checked out early. He and Reid had spent the day in the front parking lot --with an hourly walking tour of the campus breaking up the monotony. The conversation between the two agents had been casual and varied throughout the day. He realized that one subject had not come up and now that the school day was coming to a close, he decided that they had avoided the topic long enough.

"Reid, how is your relationship with Ms. Miller?"

"Have you been talking to Morgan?" Reid had answered a little too quickly – this subject may be more sensitive than first I realized, thought Hotchner.

"No, I haven't. I thought I would ask you directly."

"We're friends, that's all."

"Could it become more?"

"Hotch, she knows how to use power tools, she talks in front of groups of people everyday, for a living, and she knows how to sword fight . . . she's . . . I am not her type." Reid suddenly found the parking lot extremely fascinating and looked out the window intensely. Hotchner wanted to laugh but he thought Reid might not take it the right way.

"Being perfectly alike doesn't equal compatibility. Being different can be a great quality in a relationship." He was very aware of the lack of significant others when it came to his team members. "Don't set yourself up to always be alone." Reid continued to look out the window. Not wanting to push too hard, Hotchner decided it would be a good time to walk the campus.

Theatre Room

Morgan had enjoyed his day in school. He had watched Ms. Miller's classes from the back corner of the room – her students were simply told that he was there to observe her. He had been very impressed with her ability to show no signs to her students of the situation with which she was dealing .

It was five minutes until the last class of the day was to begin. Away from her students, Ann-Elise was looking tired. The feeling of anger had begun to dissipate and fear had taken its place. She walked to the back of the room and pulled a chair up in front of Morgan.

"One more to go. I'm not sure how much more of this I can take."

"You are doing great. I hope your students realize how lucky they are to be in your class."

"I doubt it but thank you." Too restless to sit down for long, she stood up and walked toward the window, looking out at the front parking lot. "This is so harsh! I've planned for everything as a teacher: lesson plans, rules, consequences, encouraging speeches. . . I've always been prepared to do anything for my students, to . . . . protect them – from ignorance, abuse, poverty, students with guns. . . Do you know the date I interviewed for this job? April 20th."

"The anniversary of the Columbine shooting."

"Mrs. Lorenzo brought it up – what had happened in Colorado. She asked me if I really wanted to be a teacher, knowing the 'current state of the world' and do you know what I said?"

"Obviously you said 'yes.'"

"I said 'yes.' I never thought that I would be the one who needed to be protected." She walked back to the chair and sat down again, looking directly into Morgan's eyes. "Do you think I was crazy to say 'yes'?"

"No. I've watched you all day. You are doing what you are meant to do. Don't you ever forget that." He gave herhis best smile."Besides, I would have loved to have taken your class when I was this age." The bell rang to mark the beginning of class.

"You, as a middle schooler, that I can imagine." She got up and started to walk towards her desk. "You wouldn't have survived my class for a moment, Agent Morgan."

"Aren't you supposed to save your flirting for Reid, Ms. Miller?"

"Oh no, I don't flirt with Spencer. I think it makes him too uncomfortable. Poor thing . . . he's been a god-sent these past weeks. I don't know how I would have survived this without him."

"He's a good kid."

Parking lot of Greyshell MS

Hotchner returned to the car. Reid was staring at a white van parked across from them.

"That van pulled in a few minutes ago." Hotchner looked at the van – all of the maintenance workers had been triple checked by Garcia. He sat down and found himself staring at the van. He wasn't sure what it was but something about the van felt wrong. Then he saw it. He grabbed his cell phone.

Offices of the B.A.U.

Penelope Garcia had lost count of the times she had checked the databases. She was pretty sure she now had the names of every maintenance worker is the three counties memorized. Her phone rang and she answered it with her typical flair for the dramatic.

"Information central – how can I help save lives today?"

"Garcia, get me everything you can on Tri-County A/C." Hotchner could hear the tapping of the keyboard over the phone.

"Alright, as the name implies, they serve multiply counties –and they are under contract with all three school systems."

"Why didn't we find this before, Garcia?"

"We were focusing on individual employees, boss, not companies. The school systems pay Tri-County and they, in turn, pay their individual employees. Give me a few minutes and I will have their payroll info."

"I need the names of all employees who have been with the company for at least six years and who have worked at the schools involved." He turned to Reid. "Come on, we're going in."

Garcia was rolling from one computer screen to another and Elle was just feet away on the phone.

"Good for us, but this company must have some major problems, very high turn-over rate. Alright, we have three employees who have been with the company for over six years and who have worked in all of the schools involved. But looking at more personal data I think we havea front-runner. This guy changed to his current route two months before the first killing in county number three. Oh, he inherited his parent's house when his mother died, March 2000. That's one month before the first victim was taken . . . hold on a second" Hotchner could hear Garcia talking to someone else in the room.

Main Office

Hotchner and Reid were standing in the office of the school – waiting for the principal to arrive and for Garcia to finish getting them the information they needed.

"Come on Garcia. What else do you have?"

"You are going to love this – guess who called in sick this morning?"

"Garcia, give me a name and address, please" Hotchner motioned for Reid to get ready to write down the information.

"His name is Wayne Murphy and he lives at 1728 . . ."

"Wayne Murphy." Hotchner repeated to Reid. "1728 . . ." The receptionist looked up.

"Are you looking for Wayne? He came in about five minutes ago."

"Garcia, get Gideon over to his residence now." Hotchner hung up the phone and turned to the receptionist."We need to see Mrs. Lorenzo right now. Reid, stay here and wait for the principal; I'm going to check on Ms. Miller."

Reid was concerned. Not only was unsub in the building and Ann-Elise in serious danger but he had never seen Hotchner look this panicked before.