A/N: Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter guys, I've been super busy with work lately. This chapter focuses more on the case, so there isn't much JJ/Reid development. But don't worry, from the next chapter, that starts to get very interesting! Anyways, time to R/R!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Criminal Minds.

Reid stood staring at the victim board in the DC police precinct, still trying to find a connection between the victims. He'd been standing in front of the board for the better part of an hour, taking everything in and whispering the facts of the case under his breath. The first victim, Monica Rymer, had been a student living in a share house. Caroline Myers was a legal secretary, whose only child had just left home and lived with her husband. And Denise Richards had been a stay-at-home mum with three boys. Monica had not had a lot of money because she was in college, whereas both Caroline and Denise had been middle-class. Monica had been taken from a Laundromat, Caroline while buying a coffee, and Denise while walking the family dog. It just didn't make sense.

"I brought you some coffee," said JJ, coming up behind Reid.

Reid jumped and turned around. "Sorry," he said. "I guess I was lost in thought."

JJ laughed. "You usually are." She handed Reid his coffee cup. "Full of sugar, just the way you like it."

"Thanks," Reid took the coffee from JJ and turned back to the victim board.

"You found anything yet?" JJ asked as she moved to stand beside Reid, holding her own cup of coffee.

"I don't know…" Reid whispered, taking a sip of coffee as he stared at the photos of the snatch sites.

"What is it?" said JJ.

"Well it's small…"

"Anything will help, Spence," JJ assured him.

"Well, when Monica Rymer was taken from the Laundromat, it was half an hour after class, on a Friday. She always went to the Laundromat then. Caroline Myers was buying a coffee, which she always bought at the same time and place on her way to work. And Denise Richards had been walking the dog, which she always did after she dropped her kids off at school," Reid explained.

"So the victims were all taken during their routine," JJ said.

Reid nodded. "Which means the UnSub may have been stalking his victims prior to kidnapping them," he said.

"Does that mean that he chose his victims specifically?" JJ asked.

"It might," said Reid. "But I can't be sure."

"I'll call Hotch," JJ said, taking out her cell phone. Before pressing the speed dial button for Hotch, however, she turned and looked at Reid. "Hey. We good?"

Reid turned to look at JJ briefly. "Of course we are. Why wouldn't we be?" As soon as he'd finished talking, Reid turned to look at the victim board again.

"It's just that you haven't really talked to me all day. You've been… well, kind of ignoring me. Are you sure I didn't say anything last night?"

"Like you said, you didn't mean it, right?" Reid said. "Don't you have to call Hotch?"

"Oh, right." JJ pressed the button that would dial Hotch's phone.

When JJ walked away to talk to Hotch, Reid took another sip of his coffee, his eyes closed. God, how he wished that he could tell JJ the truth! How he wished she'd meant every word she'd said that night, and that he could hold her in his arms and call her his own.

No! She was JJ- he couldn't think about her like that. She was JJ, sweet, beautiful, compassionate, amazing JJ. He was just Reid- genius, clumsy, socially awkward, extremely weird Reid. How could someone like JJ ever love him?

The woman in question had just gotten off the phone to Hotch, who had gone out to the crime scene to meet Prentiss and Rossi. Something was seriously wrong with Reid. The two of them were normally incredibly close- why would he be trying to shut her out like this? It wasn't like him at all.

JJ pressed a button on her phone and held it up to her ear. "You have reached the Fountain of All Knowledge," said Garcia's voice.

"Garcia, I need you to look up something for me," said JJ. "You can't tell anyone about this."

Garcia was shocked, and hesitated slightly. "You mind me asking why?"

"When I went out with Reid for a drink last night, and I was drunk. I think I said something to him. But I can't remember any of it."

"You want me to try and find a way for you to remember," Garcia surmised.

"Bingo," said JJ. "Call me when you find something."

JJ breathed out heavily when she'd hung up. This was such a stupid thing, needing Garcia to look this up. She wasn't even sure that this would work, that Garcia could find anything even remotely plausible. But she couldn't lose Reid over something she didn't even know she'd said. He was her best friend… she and him had grown incredibly close, being the youngest two agents on the team. Reid wasn't exactly being subtle about the fact that something was wrong. Someone on the team was bound to notice. Luckily, the rest of the team was out in the field and hadn't had a chance to see that Reid was ignoring her.

"JJ." Reid appeared behind her, his voice completely level now. There had been such a quick change in his demeanour. Something was wrong.

"Spence," she whispered, seeing the look in his eyes. He had gone from nervous but thoughtful, to sad and worried in the space of about five minutes. "Spence, what happened?"

"They found another one," Reid replied.

"Another one?" said JJ, shocked. "At the park?"

Reid shook his head. "No. Not at the park. His dumpsite was comprised. The body was dumped a few blocks away. Not even buried this time; he must've been rushed because we're here."

"I know there's something you're not telling me, Spencer. You normally don't get this upset about a victim."

"She was twelve," Reid said.

JJ was shocked; her eyes grew wide and she was pretty sure her mouth had fallen open. But she just couldn't believe it. "T-twelve?" JJ murmured, her eyes prickling. "Same level of torture?"

Reid nodded. "The same. She was drugged up, too."

"So this sick S.O.B. tortured, drugged and killed an innocent twelve-year-old girl?" JJ's voice was shaking with both anger and sadness. "How could he do this?"

The tears began to fall from her eyes, and Reid did something that completely shocked her: he pulled her into his arms and held her, running a hand over her hair. JJ resisted for a moment before allowing herself to cry onto Reid's shoulder.

"It'll be okay, JJ," Reid whispered. "We'll catch him; don't worry."

JJ nodded against Reid's shoulder. "Thanks," she said. "I needed that."

"We all react strongly every now and then," said Reid. "Except maybe Hotch, but I don't think we can count him."

JJ pulled away from Reid, a small smile now on her face. "We good?" she asked, repeating her question from before.

This time Reid nodded, and Reid started directly into JJ's eyes, holding her gaze. "Yes. We're good." He reached over and grabbed his jacket off a chair. "Hotch wants us to go talk to the family," he explained.

"Okay," JJ replied. As the two of them walked towards the door, JJ said, "I still want to know exactly what I said."

Reid was quiet for a moment. "Sometimes, it's best not to know," he replied eventually.

"This from our resident genius," JJ laughed.

"Nobody knows everything, and some facts we don't need to know," said Reid. "We do only use 10% of our brains."

"If that's true, your brain must be huge," said JJ as the climbed into the Bureau-issued SUV, JJ in the driver's seat. No one on the team ever let Reid drive them anywhere- unless they were drunk.

"Shaila Cain, age twelve," Reid said, reading over the information Garcia had sent him. "She went missing on her way home from school- only three days ago."

"When was Shaila killed?" JJ asked. She couldn't- wouldn't- dehumanise that little girl by calling her 'the body' or 'the victim'. She was a lot more emotional than the rest of the team- they were profilers, and she was the media liaison, the connection with the grieving families. She needed to be emotional.

Reid, on the other hand, didn't. "She was killed yesterday. His timeline is accelerating fast- he only held her for two days."

"Was there- was there the same kind of torture as the other victims?" said JJ.

"Yes," Reid replied, swift and emotionless. But then again, he was Reid. He always was- it was just his nature. He looked down at the information again, now and then reading out a fact to JJ about the Cain family so she was ready to interview them. He was deeply absorbed in reading (actually, rereading) the information when JJ pulled up in front of a well-kept, single storey house.

"We're here, Reid," she said as she turned off the car. Reid looked up from the information, looking confused. JJ had to suppress a smile; Reid hadn't even realised they'd stopped moving.

"Be gentle, Reid," JJ whispered to the young agent. Sometimes when talking to a victim's family, Reid could begin spouting out facts about killers and the case, not realising how what he said would hurt the families. He looked up at JJ. Normally he would've said something about what he said wasn't a bad thing, but this time he just nodded. "I know," he whispered back.

When JJ and Reid reached the door to the Cain house, it was immediately opened for them. A man and a teenage girl stood there: the man was Alfred Cain, Shaila's father. And the girl was Francesca, Shaila's sixteen-year-old sister. Her eyes were red, and her face stained with tears.

JJ was silent. The girl was completely broken by her sister's death.

Realising JJ wasn't going to, Spencer spoke up. "Hi, I'm Dr Spencer Reid with the FBI, and this is Agent Jennifer Jareau. Could we… ask you some questions?"

Francesca just started crying again. Alfred nodded. "Of course," he said. "Come in."

Alfred, with his arm around his now only child, led Reid and JJ into the living room. The room was well kept, with photos of both Shaila and Francesca- and sometimes also Alfred- but no photos of a mother. Reid took this all in with a profiler's eye.

"I was wondering if we could talk to you… about Shaila," JJ began. "What was she like?"

"She was beautiful," Alfred replied. "She was always happy… her smile could light up a room. She was vibrant. Everybody loves- loved her."

"Even when we fought, even when she frustrated me so much I wanted to scream, she was always there for me," Francesca sobbed, choking back tears. "She would always come and say sorry to me, even when I was in the wrong."

"Did she always take the same way home from school? Alone?" Reid asked.

Alfred nodded. "Always."

"I understand this may be hard for you," Reid continued, "but I need to ask you one more question. Why are there no pictures of Shaila and Francesca's mother?"

Alfred hesitated, looking at Francesca, before speaking. "We… we kicked her out," he said.

"Why?"

"Because she… she tried to hit Shaila," said Alfred. "Not just smack her to discipline her, but really hit her. I always taught Shaila- both of my girls- that that was wrong, and my little baby called the police. They came and arrested her, and we never saw her again." Francesca began crying even more, and Alfred pulled her in close to him.

"Thank you for your time," said JJ softly, and the two agents left the house.

"So another kidnapping during a routine activity," said JJ. "This UnSub is definitely watching his victims." Reid didn't answer. "Reid? What is it?"

"The story Mr Cain told us, about his wife," Reid said. "It can't be a coincidence."

"You think it has something to do with why Shaila was targeted?" JJ asked. Reid nodded. "But why Shaila, and not Francesca?"

"Maybe it was because Shaila was the one Mrs Cain tried to hit, and Shaila was the one who called the police," Reid replied. "We need to call Garcia."

As JJ pulled out her phone and the two agents climbed back into the SUV (Reid driving this time as JJ dialled) neither of them noticed the beat-up white Lexus down the street, or the driver sitting with a camera in his hands pointing directly towards them.

A/N: Ooooh, so who's the creepy guy in the car? And I feel so sorry for that family... I almost cried when I wrote that the victim was only 12. As always, please review so I know how I can improve!