Criminal Minds does not belong to me. If I did then you'd see more skin. Oh god stop me from perving.

Reid clenched his messenger bag's strap when the train passengers began to swarm inside the cart, eager to head back home after a long day of work. Riding the subway was Reid's own personal haven. Being at the BAU was just work related thoughts, facts, statistics, and sometimes silly already contrived comebacks mainly directed at Morgan and Prentiss. The opposite of that was his own apartment was filled with melodic words that he read from books, memories, and silence. Sometimes he played classical music so he wouldn't feel the crawling loneliness. Other times it was music Prentiss would burn for him to try and bring him into the 21st century; right now she was in her Belle & Sebastian phase.

The train was indeed a special place for the troubled genius. His thoughts were muted into a mummer as he looked at the other passengers enter into their own worlds. He always thought it was strange how he could be at peace while swimming in a sea of thoughts. When they were thinking or daydreaming he can feel this buzz in the air and it calmed him. Everyone was the same and Reid was like everyone else.

He took out his personal cell phone that had only about ten numbers. He figured why he even had a personal phone and a work phone. Garica's sudden text glowed on his eyes.

Hey sweet cheeks! Tomorrow

7:30PM. Sinclair movie theater.

Love Garci XOXO

Garcia was quick setting up the another date and that was no surprise to Reid. She was always so good at multitasking in just about everything; real life events included. Her spiked interest in Reid's love life was expected because he was the most private person in the BAU. Reid wondered if shielding himself from everybody so they can be tempted to chip away at his life was on purpose on his part. Reid shook the thought out of his head. No, this was his time to be void of any thoughts.

The train stopped again and the doors swished besides him. More passengers rushed inside and it was getting ridiculously full. Reid spotted an old woman standing not to far from him and noticed she was caring a fair amount of groceries. One thing never did change about people, they're lack of willingness to help anyone else.

"Excuse me ma'm," Reid tapped the elderly woman on the shoulder lightly. She turned around and her eyes widened immediately, surprised by Reid's height. "Oh um," Reid continued shyly. "Please take my seat. I sit around the office all day anyway."

The old woman curled up a smile and gave the young man a warm and thankful hug, "Thank you child. "

"It's no problem at all," Reid tried to ignore the amused smiles he felt around him and used all his will power to keep himself from blushing.

"The only time I see you sitting is when Prentiss and Morgan are gossiping about mundane things," A deep and familiar voice rang in Reid's ears.

Reid turned around and he felt his stomach drop in light speed, "H-Hotch!" he stuttered. "H-Hi, why are you here?"

Hotch raised his brow, amused by his flustered subordinate. "I happen to know my away around the transit system Reid. Why is that so strange?"

"You have a car."

"So do you."

"That is true," Reid looked at Hotch then at the other passengers then back at Hotch again, "This is the first time that you are the one standing out and not me," Reid tugged his lips into a knowing smirk. "They can smell the authority on you."

"It's the suit," Hotch looked around the cart and everyone darted their eyes away from him.

"Your posture of course," Reid held on to the pole in front of him and saw Hotch's distorted reflection on it's surface. "Actually, your neutral face makes people think that you're angry. If I weren't a profiler I'd always have the impression that you hate me."

Hotch smirked curtly, "I don't hate you, half the time."

Reid's face fell into a disheartening expression for a millisecond and Hotch was a little pleased with himself to catch it. "It's a joke Reid. I don't hate you."

"I know," Reid brushed his brown locks behind his ear and presented an awkward smile. There were moments, though rare, where Reid felt stupid and this was one of those moments.

The train jolted in a sudden stop and sent everyone standing inside to rock with a startling force. Reid felt his body fly towards the window after he unwillingly let go of the pole. He shut his eyes when he felt his elbow slam onto someone else.

"Hold on!" the young agent heard Hotch yell towards him as strong arms wrapped around his body. Reid's ear was pressed against Hotch's chest and he could hear the older man's speeding heartbeat. Reid froze, his eyes were unblinking. He felt the part of where his face made contact with Hotch's chest, tingle.

Hotch let go of Reid once everyone adjusted themselves from the shock and panic. The young agent ignored feeling of loss when they let go of each other. A loud squeaking noise came from the intercom and the engineer began to speak, "Sorry for the sudden stop folks. We are having technical difficulties right now so please stay calm and we'll be out of here in a jiff. Sorry for the inconvenience."

"Just our luck," Hotch straightened his thick black tie and sighed. "Is your elbow alright?"

Reid nodded slowly, "I'm more worried for the person I jabbed my elbow into. It's fine though, maybe a slight bruising later on."

"Good," Hotch scanned the cart to make sure no one else was hurt, "I have a feeling that I jinxed the train. First my car breaks down this morning, then this?"

"Ha!" Reid grins triumphantly, "The Hotch Effect. That's right, I said it."

"You got me there," Hotch chuckled. "Morgan has his doors and Rossi has women. The men in our team are hopeless."

"The girls have it good I suppose."

Reid could feel the awkward silence surround the two and this was never fun. Hotch looked like he was going to ask something. He wasn't. Hotch was probably thinking about when the train was going to move again. Reid wasn't sure. It would be nice to be able to read Hotch's mind, for only a minute. That stony expressionless face of his made it more tempting.

Hotch waited for Reid to be distracted by that old woman. She asked the doctor if he was okay and he assured her that he was. Hotch could tell, how Reid propped his arm close to his chest that he was in pain.

The unit chief replayed the moment where Reid's body made contact with his. It was a long time ago, back in Georgia, where that last happened. Since then, Reid has changed. He knew that traumatizing experiences changed people to the worse or for better. Elle chose one path, Hoch and Reid chose the other. He wasn't sure what path Gideon had chosen. It was likely the path in-between the two. It didn't matter, Gideon abandoned them all. Abandoned Reid. When Hotch heard of the news he was worried about the young genius. To almost everyone that was enough to cause a relapse. Reid, however, was stronger than he looked. Hotch had found a newfound respect for the kid. Scratch that- man.

Hotch leaned on the pole and wondered about himself. He felt he had changed too. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Reid laughing when the old woman gave him her number.

"Come and drop by when you can young man. I only live a block away from you," She winked. "Bring your handsome friend along too. I make the best apple pie in the city."

Hotch smiled as warmly as he could without making it look out of place. "I'll be more than happy to."

"Yep," Reid looked out the glass window. "Me too."

The cart jolted again and the train began to move; everyone cheered.

Friday 8:00 PM

J.J. ran towards the conference room and was relieved to see Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, and Prentiss sitting around the conference table, already looking at the new case file. Reid still had yet to show up and this would be the second time he would be late. Hotch checked his watch and peeked at the door to see their youngest agent rushing in across the bullpen while knocking a few files down. Hotch raised a brow, something was different.

"This guy is a real sicko," J.J. wiped a little sweat from her cheek as she placed another gruesome photo on the evidence board. "He kills four women and he kills all of the pets they own."

"Garcia wont be too happy to hear that," Prentiss shuffled more pictures of dead animals on her desk. "Look at the identical way he murders the owners and the pets."

"Some people have a deep connection towards their pets." Reid rushes in and catches his breath. Everyone turned and were shocked to see Reid look a little different. He wore a form fitting plain black T-shirt that had sleeves revealing Reid's impressive biceps. Just the fact that they were there were impressive. Another blaring difference were the dark washed jeans. They were folded up from the bottom that gave his different colored socks a tiny peek for everyone to see. Almost teasing. It's a good thing he kept his converse shoes on or Morgan swore his head was going to blow up in shear bewilderment.

"Sorry about that."

"Continue," Rossi orders.

Reid nods, "Look at Morgan and Clooney, both are athletic, both don't really listen to much of, or any authority, and both have same characteristic traits."

"Hey," Morgan scrunches his brow, "I told you Clooney didn't mean to eat up that book you let me borrow. Don't hate on him."

"You dropped one of my essays in a puddle of water if I remember correctly." Reid flashed him a pointed look. "Morgan and Clooney don't care about people's personal belongings is another example. This proves my point about pets and owners sharing similar traits."

Morgan glared, "What's up with you? Why are you dressed so… fashionable?"

"Um," Reid blushed. "I think the unsub's intentions is to kill the same person twice. By killing the pets they are killing the extension of his victim."

"So the unsub might know the victims before hand. It looks personal," Rossi noted.

"Wheels up in an hour," Hotch ordered and everyone in the conference room table left except for Rossi, of course.

"Look at that," Rossi grinned as he cocked his head towards the door. Hotch knew who he was referring to. "He looks like David Bowie and Lou Reed's Bastard child."

"What the- Are you serious?" Hotch crossed his arms. "Don't you have to get your things ready Dave?"

Rossi shook his head apathetically, "Message received Aaron. I'll be on my way mother." The oldest agent went to join the others who were probably discussing their own theories about Reid.

Hotch ignored the need to roll his eyes at Rossi's nosy demeanor but then again, he was also curious as to why their Reid appeared late, dressed like a more polished version of himself with jeans. Jeans! Not just any ordinary jeans anybody could casually wear out in the streets but, tight fitting dark washed jeans that made his long legs look ridiculously longer. Hotch had to mentally kick himself for thinking about his jean clad subordinate. It's not like he was violating whatever non-existent dress code the BAU had.

"Are you ready Hotch?" the object of his musings popped his head out of the door frame and eyed him curiously.

"Yes," Hotch nodded and began to head out the door. Reid relieved his posture, smiled, then went back into the bullpen to get a book he almost left behind. Hotch caught the sight of the jeans again and sighed. Despite seeing strange and unusual things on a daily basis, thanks to his job, this by far, was the strangest.

The team was getting close to the unsub. No new victims so far and things seemed to be going smoothly. The police allowed the team to cooperate as much as possible with out any protests. Usually something Hotch had to remedy. Everyone was focused and no inner drama surfaced, which was becoming quite typical for the agents. Hotch knew, there is always that calm before the storm.

Rossi loomed over the pool of blood that was left by the last victim. Two pools of blood in fact. "Odd," he paused. "The detectives just informed me that the leashes were missing."

"Souvenirs," Hotch mused as he kept walking around the nothing but impeccably clean kitchen; if not for the blood.

"You know what else is odd?"

Hotch hummed as he examined the window, "No forced entry."

"That and-," Rossi took a couple of aloof steps forward, "Reid wearing those tight ass jeans last night."

Hotch kept studying the surroundings, looking for clues. "That again? All young men his age begin to alternate styles more often."

"Oh yeah? He's wearing Khakis today. How is that alternating? He looks like his same geeky self."

"Can we focus on the case Dave?" Hotch sighed.

"Odd," Rossi began again.

"What is it now?" Hotch was growing impatient.

"I heard one of the trains in the subway was momentarily stopped." Rossi quirked a smug smirk on his face. "I know Dr. Reid takes that particular train home."

Hotch turned around and shot Rossi the iciest of stares that were saved for the unsubs. Rossi, however, took great pleasure seeing his friend this irritated and perplexed.

"Hotch! Rossi!" Morgan ran into the kitchen and waved the men over to him. "We have a lead. XXXX Brilliam's Street. It's inside an abandoned psych hospital."

Hotch and Rossi nodded to each other and all three headed to the abandoned psych ward.

Prentiss and Reid both gulped at the same time. The psych ward resembled a castle Dracula would approve of. "You gotta be shitting me." Emily cursed.

"I remember reading about this building. It is called the Brilliam Sanitarium. Not only did it house mental patients back in the late 1800's up until 1975 but when the tuberculosis epidemic hit, that's where they went to seek medical help. There are approximately five stories. The fourth and fifth floors were where the mental patients were housed and taken care of… so to speak. The floors below were for the physically ill," Reid peeked at one of the large windows and hoped that the others would hurry up. A large spooky sanitarium where it hasn't had any electric power supply in almost forty years was not his cup of tea. "I have my flashlight with me."

Prentiss hesitated too but she knew that the unsub was hiding in there and could escape at any moment. "Me too. Lets stick together and be as cautious as possible okay."

"You read my mind," Reid readied his flashlight and gun.

Inside was like walking into another time. The lobby was covered in dirt and cobwebs, the chandelier had only but a few dangling glass shillings. Prentiss walked inside slowly because if you ran around a place like that, you'd be more likely to trip or cause an accident.

"Reid," Prentiss whispered. "We don't have time checking all five floors. If we look at the profile, I'm betting that he's on either the fourth or fifth floor."

"I'm sure you're right," he nodded. "The unsub knows the history of this building. I read that they also conducted experiments with humans and animals on the fourth floor. That's where we'll find him."

As they made their way up the stairs they spotted a lonely nose, hanging still in the hallway of the second floor. Reid tapped Prentiss lightly with his finger. "Prentiss. Look. That's where a nurse by the name of Emily Joe hung herself. She happened to have a small dog she secretly took care of in her room. After she died the caretakers found the dog and took it to the lab upstairs."

"Do you think the unsub think he's avenging the nurse somehow?"

"That or he thinks he's the reincarnated spirit of Emily Joe. It makes sense, all the victims were scientists working in labs. He murdered the pets to keep them from getting experimented on too."

"Did you hear that?" Prentiss turned on her heels and pointed the flashlight down the hall. Nothing. She swore she heard someone giggling. A child.

Reid looked around the hallway. He didn't find anything. They both kept walking up the stairs to the fourth floor.

As they got closer the smell of the building grew worse. It was thick and stale like walking into a dust cloud. The air had something else that Reid couldn't pin point. It was heavy but all encompassing. Something was not right. "Prentiss. No. We have to go back."

Emily turned around to see her partner's eyes grow wide with fear. Reid rarely-if ever suggested to retreat on a mission. He usually kept going forward, knowing the dangers ahead, and ready to prove everyone that he was as tough as everyone else. "What's wrong?" she asks.

Reid shook his head, "I don' know. Something is telling me to go back… to the second floor."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah," Reid answered as he licked his lips. "Very sure."

They were on the way to the sanitarium and Hotch still was giving Rossi that icy glare he gave him earlier. Morgan was too busy driving and talking to Garcia on the hands free phone to notice the battle between the older agents. Rossi was too happy go bask in his glory to care about Hotch being butt hurt that he found out. It was about damn time too. Hotch has been looking Reid even before Rossi returned to the BAU. How long was he looking at Reid for? Who the hell knew for sure. JJ has a theory that it was when Reid was kidnapped by that psycho. Rossi had a different theory. It must have been longer than that.

He almost forgot to thank JJ on that little sabotage trick she used on Hotch's car. Rossi will have to wait till this case was over and they'll both have a good laugh about it. JJ and Rossi still have a lot of work ahead due to Garcia and Prentiss's meddling. He'll have to have a word with them.

"Around Halloween, the place is open for tourists," Garcia could be heard on loudspeaker. "They say the place is haunted. Wooooo."

"Babygirl, there are no such things as ghosts," Morgan laughed.

"You are no fun," Garcia said.

"We're almost there Gacri-baby. Try and contact Reid and Prentiss I think they're inside already," Morgan pulls into the lawn. "Damn this place is creepy."

"Morgan! They are not responding!" Garcia shouted. "I can't get through."

"What?" Morgan frowned as he looked at the building. Hotch spotted the black SUV, hoping to see his two agents inside or around it. They weren't there. They must be inside.

Hotch drew his weapon and nodded his head to Rossi and Morgan. The storm finally hit.

A/N Rawr! How did that happen? It turned into a ghost story! Where is the love? Don't worry folks, it's only to keep my brain from drowning in fluff and corny things. I'm going to have to up the ratings too because of all of the cursing.

I want to thank the reviewers again for their support. I'm sorry I can't respond to everyone but I'll try my hardest this time around. *insert smiley face here* And I want to thank those who fav'd me and the story. Made me go into a joy high.

Anywho! Sorry the beginning was a little slow and I promise the fluff will continue. Twists and turns abound. I also want to apologize for my grammar. It's not easy writing in English when it's your second language. ~_^ but I tried to edit it as much as I possibly could.

Until next time!