Reid and Garcia rushed into Hotch's office.

"What is it?" He asked as he promptly hung up the phone.

"I got a secret message from Charles; it was 'Parker', not 'Marcus' like I figured out before. I was wrong." Reid spouted out quickly.

"Yes, and I checked and Alex was not registered back into prison yet. Parker was the one who picked her up. He has her. Parker is a bad man." Garcia added with extreme anxiety.

"We need to go before it is too late." Reid urged in a panic.

Hotch held up his hand, breaking their ramble. "Hold on, calm down. I am not saying that Director Parker isn't an upstanding human being, but I can't go to his superiors or ours with information about a cryptic message left for you by your former teammate who isn't even in the CIA anymore. Go get me some information and I will personally lead the charge. But until then, my hands are tied."

Garcia turned to Reid. "I'm going to see what I can find out." She rushed off to her office.

Reid shuffled back to his desk but was unsure of what to do, or where to start looking. He replayed conversations he had with Parker from years ago, trying to come up with some kind of clue.

Prentiss studied Reid's restlessness as she watched his foot twitching. "Hey, why don't you get some air or something?" She suggested.

"I'm fine." He snapped.

She stared at him with her mouth open. "I was just trying to help."

His shoulders loosened as he closed his eyes. He let out a deep breath then looked at his friend. "I'm sorry. I just feel helpless."

"I know some people with connections at Interpol. Let me make some calls and see what I can find out, okay?

"Thank you, Emily. " He stood up. "I think I will take your advice. I'm going for a quick stroll, to try to clear my head."

Reid made his way downstairs and out to an open courtyard. He approached a maintenance worker who was enjoying his smoke break. "Hey, mind if I bum one of those off of you?" Reid asked motioning to the pack of menthols.

The worker looked him up and down then pulled the half-empty pack from his chest pocket and handed Reid a cigarette then returned to his duties.

Reid took a long drag and blew out the smoke slowly.

"I would never have pegged you as a smoker." Morgan took a few steps towards Reid.

"There's a lot you don't know about me."

"No kidding. I have been trying to decipher fact from fiction when it comes to your past."

Reid put out his cigarette in the ashtray next to him. "I don't need this right now."

"I get that. I am only interested in helping my friend right now." Morgan responded sincerely. "Garcia told me that you are worried about Alex and that Parker didn't return her to prison. I don't get it. Why do you care? What happened with this girl to turn you so upside down? She betrayed you by literally sleeping with the enemy. Why are you trying to protect her?"

"She was more than just my partner. She was my friend, one of my best friends." Reid sat down on a cement bench. "The last assignment Alex and I had together was to finally take Knight down. She was able to get him alone and then I was supposed to take him into custody. But Knight was waiting for me. He used Alex as leverage and said that there were several bombs in the building with over a hundred people as possible victims. He then kidnapped her so he could escape. The building exploded. Thirty-two people lost their lives. I searched for her but was unable to get to her in time. For the next two weeks I wasn't eating, I wasn't sleeping, I didn't know if she was alive or dead. We were finally able to get a lead and when I tracked them down she was in bed with him." Reid looked disgusted as the words came out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry, man. That is a lot for someone to go through."

"All that time I wasted worrying about her and she was playing me for a fool. And yet there was one thing that I have never been able to figure out."

"What's that?"

"I don't know why she did it. I tried to convince myself that it was about the money. But she never spent any money she had. She grew up in foster homes and learned to save her money and how important it was. She was extremely frugal. Alex used to talk about how horrible her life was before joining the CIA. She always said that Charles and I were her new family. She wouldn't just betray that. I knew how much that meant to her. It never added up. It never made sense to me."

"You had feelings for her and she knew that."

"What do you mean?"

"She was playing you. Even after all this time you are still doubting her motives. Alex is smart and knew that you would be trying to justify what she did." Morgan tried to point out her deception.

"Hey Morgan." Prentiss called out as she walked toward the courtyard. "Hotch is looking for you."

"Thanks." He responded to her then turned back to Reid. "I am here if you need to talk." He then walked past Prentiss back into the building.

Prentiss made her way to Reid and sat down next to him on the bench. "So, how you doing?"

Reid looked more confused than before. "I am not sure."

"I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation with Morgan. For what it's worth, I think he is wrong."

"Are you saying that you don't think she is working the long-con on me?" Reid asked in a cynical tone.

"No I don't." Prentiss shook her head. "And I will tell you why. I was watching her very closely. Anytime we were on the jet and especially when we were going on that op at Knight's estate. Alex wouldn't take her eyes off of you. Particularly when she thought you weren't looking. If anything I think she was trying to hide her feelings from you."

Reid shrugged his shoulders. He had so much information come at him, he wasn't able to process it all.

"I may not know you as well as the rest of the team, at least for not as long. But I know you well enough to trust you. If you say that she is in trouble and we need to help, then that's exactly what we will do. I have faith in you, Reid." She put her hand on top of his and squeezed.

"Oh that's me." Prentiss pulled out her ringing phone. "Oh, this is one of my Interpol contacts. Tsia, were you able to find out anything? Can you send that to me? Great. Thank you." Prentiss ended the call.

"What is it?" Reid asked.

"We have an update on Parker."