(Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Criminal minds or the show itself)

(Quick note: Reid's haircut in this goes from something similar to what he had at the end of season 12 to what he had in episode 22 in season 5, which is where my favourite quote "what did you join a boyband?" Comes from. If you don't remember this haircut, type in that quote in YouTube, it'll give you an idea)

Reid had been in his safe house for a week before he received his new identity, new job and new apartment in Miami. He'd been told to be moved in and at work within 8 days. This also meant changing how he looked.

It was a day after he'd received his new information that he began making necessary changes. James Cooper had blonde hair and green eyes.He wore thick glasses, jeans and short sleeve shirts. This had all been provided for Reid along with his new passport, driving licence and debit cards. Agent Courtney had gotten him the hair dye, coloured contacts, glasses and the new outfits he'd have to wear as James. He'd also suggested Reid cut his hair.

When they had finally left, he'd spent the night coming to terms with the person he was going to become.

In order to make his character more believable, Spencer and James shared similar feats. They both had an extraordinarily high IQ, could read 20,000 words per minute and they both studied at Caltech. However, James was toned down a little bit from Spencer. He only had one PhD, compared to Reid's three and he only had one BA, whereas Reid had two. James Cooper was transferring from a branch of the CIA, which would offer Reid an excuse to not discuss his work past. The personality was up to Reid. He decided on being a 'seen, but not heard' type of guy. From the description he was to base himself off, with the jeans and short sleeve shirts, Reid guessed that he'd have to be a little more outgoing as James.

The next morning he stood in the bathroom mirror, deciding how he'd cut his hair, which had begun to grow past his ears in messy waves. He placed the pair of sissors onto the first lock of mousy brown hair and sliced. He'd been meaning to get a haircut, but not like this. He knew the dimensions and measurements he needed to consider when cutting, but he wasn't a hairdresser and when he was finished a few of his messy curls stuck out in tufts.

When he got to Miami he'd get his hair cut a bit better, but for now it would have to do. He grabbed the hair dye, unboxing it and reading the instructions. He took one last look at his hair; he sighed and lavered it in the product.

One week earlier - Team

Hotch was pacing around his office as the team filled the bullpen. Morgan had been in early and was sat watching Reid's desk, a suddenly empty void surrounding him, with the realisation that Reid may never sit there again.

Rossi flitted into Hotch's office. "Hey, Aaron the teams here. Do we have a... something's wrong isn't it?" Rossi stopped half way into the room.

"Gather the team in the conference room. There's something you all need to know."

Rossi raised his eyebrows, but didn't question further. He headed out to inform the team. Hotch watched as several of his team memebers passed confused looks at each other. The team made their way to the conference room, equipped with coffees.

JJ glanced into Hotch's office, a panic gripping her when she saw the expression that plagued his face.

After a minute or so, Hotch left his office, silently entering the conference room. He shut the door quietly and quickly behind him.

"What's going on, Hotch?" Alex frowned at his precautions.

Morgan got up and closed the blinds, whilst Hotch pulled the back door open and let Agent Monroe in, before closing it gently.

The rest of the team watched them nervously.

Morgan retook his seat, but Hotch and the new Agent remained standing.

"This is Agent Monroe." Hotch stated.

"Wait... are you replacing Reid? I thought he was only having another week off? He doesn't need a stand in for a week. Wait.. wait..wait.. what's happened? Something's happened to him? He's okay, right? He..." Garcia blurted out, questions tumbling from her mouth as her eyes darted between Hotch and the new agent.

"Garcia. Calm down. Agent Monroe is not joining the BAU. He's from witness protection."

Rossi raised his head in realisation, Alex gasped and chewed her lower lip. Emily, and the others still hadn't quite caught on, and she began to bite deeper into the skin around her non-existent nails.

"This has something to do with Reid, doesn't it?" JJ whispered.

"Where is he!" Garcia yelled suddenly, tears filling her eyes.

"Baby girl! Stop, you're not helping. He's fine." Morgan started.

"So this is about him?" Emily murmured.

"It's to keep him safe. Nothing bad has happened to him. I...it's...uh Hotch should explain." Morgan slumped back in his chair, his eyes lowered, unable to look at his friends.

"Hotch..." JJ said expectantly.

Hotch cleared his throat and looked at his team properly. "What is said in this room, must remain confidential. Am I understood." The team all nodded in consent. "Spencer is going into witness protection. Agent Monroe, his partner Agent Courtney and I decided that a new identity would be in order, so that he can continue to live his life. However, to anyone outside this room- excluding a select few- Reid will be 'dead'. Callen is still out there, and he believes Reid to be dead, we must maintain his belief of this so that Reid is safe."

Silence fogged the room, as the team tried to swallow Hotch's intel.

Garcia's abrormaly high voice cut into the quiet. "When's this happening? We need to see him first...need to say goodbye...where is he? Is he here?" Garcia's high pitch cracked and tears slipped over her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Garcia, but for Reid's own safety, he was taken to a safe house last night." Hotch admitted, pressing his lips firmly together in guilt.

Garcia's marcara began melting down her face, unable to speak. JJ took on Garcia's cause, anger boiling inside her.

"And you knew? Both of you!" She snarled sending daggers at Hotch and Morgan. "You didn't think to tell us?! We could've said goodbye!"

"JJ we had no choice..." Hotch weakly argued.

"No! You knew this was happening Hotch. We might not ever see him again, and you didn't let us say goodbye!" She got up storming off to the door.

"JJ stay here. We can't..." the door slammed shut on Morgan's half spoken words.

Emily stood up to go after her, but Morgan grabbed her arm.

"Emily don't." He stood up beside her looking into her eyes, but she looked away.

Morgan sighed. "You of all people should know why we couldn't say anything, especially not over the phone. And even if we could there was no time."

"I know." Emily whispered quietly. "I..I'm just in shock. That's all." There was a lack of emotion in her voice. She was trying to hide her feelings.

"This isn't permanent. Reid will be back in the bureau as soon as Callen has been caught." Hotch stated confidently. How could he believe otherwise?

"H..how do we know h..he..he's safe?" Garcia stuttered through sobs.

"Kid's tough. Right now he's probably safer than all of us." Rossi gave Garcia a smile, but sadness echoed in the pit of his stomach.

"Can't we contact him?" Alex asked. Surprisingly she didn't feel too upset over the situation, in fact she felt more relieved now she knew Spencer was safe.

"Not anytime soon. We can't risk anything. If this drags out, Agent Monroe will update us on Reid's status."

Rossi nodded in understanding, and was about to open his mouth to respond when the door flung open and JJ skulked in. Morgan shut it behind her and cautiously placed a hand on her trembling shoulder. Before Morgan could move, JJ's arms wrapped around him in a quick hug. "Sorry" she purred.

She turned back towards the table, nodding at Hotch's.

"Well, what are we waiting for. Let's catch the sonovabitch!" She boomed, smacking her palm into the table.

Rossi rubbed his palms together, smiling widely. Head bounced in enthusiastic agreement.

Two weeks later - back to Reid

Reid stood looking at himself in the mirror. His eyes were green and the large glasses framing them sat comfortably on his nose. His hair swept by his eyes, he was still getting used to the dirty blonde colour which dominated his head. He'd had a haircut to fix his hack job, but his hair had still managed to become messy; curls of blonde tangled into each other. A purple short sleeve shirt, patterned with tiny mauve triangles hung loosely off his body. It was tucked into a pair so denim jeans, a type of clothing that Spencer Reid was not used to. But he was no longer Spencer Reid.

He scrapped his arm sling several days before, but his shoulder still ached, no matter how much he ignored it. A private doctor had come and removed the stitches in his torso and his head when he was still in the safe house. His head wound was still visible, although, it was now scarring over, hiding the past. The bruises on his face had completely disappeared, his skin still appeared reddened around his healing head injury. Similar to his head, Reid's abdomen and shrapnel wounds were closed up and almost completely healed.

His hearing was still significantly changed, when he watched the small TV in his new Miami apartment, he'd turn the volume up around a dozen bars higher that he'd used to. Occasionally, when the stress of his whole situation fell down upon him, he could hear buzzing ripping through his eardrums, followed by a whirlwind of a headache which left him panting on his knees.

The headaches had eased to around one a day, but they served as a reiminder of the past few weeks that he had had to endure.

As he stood gazing at Agent James Cooper who now replaced Spencer Reid, he wondered if the team had any leads on finding Callen. Or if they'd found him. He kept his hopes high on returning home. He already felt home-sick.

He was about to go into work for the first time in just under a month. Except he wasn't going to the BAU. He wouldn't be gathering with his team; his family, to review a case. James Cooper worked at Miami police department, he wasn't a profiler, instead he was a CSI Detective. Although Reid could've done practically anything, but his heart lay in the enforcing of law and justice.

A black satchel sat on the couch, alongside a box of Reid's favourite books which he'd kept from his apartment in Quantico.

He flicked on a pair of sunglasses, in replacement for his glasses, which he hung from his shirt pocket. He placed his bag over his shoulder, looking at James Cooper one last time before leaving.

Callen

The last few weeks hadn't been easy on Jack Callen. He'd been dodging human interaction and keeping himself hidden away; planning. He'd reached out to many of his contacts. Darrell returned to him and they planned together.

Callen felt a desire deep inside. The desire morphed into a voice after several days. It whispered to him, hissing in his head. It begged him to kill, pleaded, demanded. The voice was growing hungry, Callen knew he'd have to feed it soon. He'd have to spill some blood sooner or later, whether it belonged to his destined targets or not. He hung pictures and articles of the team around his temporary base.

His most reliable contact worked as a janitor at the BAU. He was the one who gathered some information on the team for him before Callen kidnapped them.

Darrell had got back into contact with the janitor, who'd seemed eager for another payout. Callen wanted to see the damage he'd inflicted on the BAU. The janitor had taken in a hidden camera on one of his night shifts, and he'd hovered in front of the wall of framed photos which stood in the department to signify those who lost their lives on duty. The voice within Callen had screamed in sadistic pleasure when the video showed the newest addition to the wall; Dr Spencer Reid.

Callen wanted to fill that wall with the faces of the other team members.

Callen planned his next kill maliciously. He'd create a distraction. He'd make the BAU come to him. Have them walk straight into his trap.

After around a month of holding back the evolving monster inside him, he finally decided to give it what it wanted; put his plan into motion.

Luckily, Callen had an average kind of face, one you wouldn't remember. He seemed completely unremarkable. A small beard and moustache laced his face, he'd shaved off his hair, similar to Darrell's army cut. He barely recognised himself and when he received his fake identity (passports and all), he felt confident that he wouldn't be caught.

All he'd had to do now was follow his carefully laid out plan. Before he left his dingy hideout, he went over his plan one last time. His fingers traced over the map he'd stuck on the wall alongside pictures of the team. His first stop would be Albany in Georgia, he'd kill 3 civilians then when the BAU followed him he'd kill one of them. Only one, he'd already decided to pace himself. Then he'd go into Florida and terrorise there for some time. Several of his older contacts were down in Miami, so he'd be sure to make a visit there, and get a few souvenirs. His fingers danced over the map to all the places he'd planned on killing, until there were no more members left to kill. He grinned pleasurably. His fingers began encircling the map, he wouldn't stop after the BAU were all dead and gone. No, he would be unstoppable. Like his brother.