Chapter 5

"Okay, John. Tell me everything you know," Hotch said. He and John were sitting in the living room, a coffee in each of their hands. "Did Olivia have a routine? Did she frequent the same places a lot?"

John looked down at the cup in his hand and Hotch felt a pang of sadness for the younger man sitting across from him – his grief was genuine. Unsure it seemed of his own voice, John spoke quietly and shakily. "She uh, spends most of her time at the hospital. Much like your team, hers doesn't come home until the case is over. She could be at the hospital for the typical twelve hour shift or she could not come home for three days – it's anything but routine."

"This Unsub knew that you were away – he would never have tried to take her if you had been home."

"You said that none of these women knows who this guy is… Maybe he doesn't know much about Olivia either – maybe it was just dumb luck that he broke in when he did."

"This guy may not know these women personally, but he's not stupid either. He's organized – he plans. He probably stalked her – and you – for some time. While he has one woman, he's already on the lookout for the next one. He has over a week to plan, to dig into your lives and learn who you are. So, other than the hospital, is there any place she routinely goes to?"

"I wouldn't say 'routinely', but there are places she goes to relatively often… The coffee shop a couple blocks down she likes a lot. Liv also likes going to the small bookstore on Vinton Street whenever she finds some free time." Hotch smiled at that one, thinking about the little ways Reid and his sister were alike.

"What about the obvious? Did you notice anybody strange lately? Maybe someone you didn't recognize taking a walk by your house, someone Olivia saw that made her feel uncomfortable? Is that something she would talk to you about?" Hotch asked.

John slowly shook his head, "Liv is independent – if she was worried about someone, she probably wouldn't tell me. She would handle it herself… I'm sorry if I misunderstood, but I'm confused. I thought he was taking these women because they all looked like someone he was angry with. Why are you focusing on someone who would be mad at Olivia only? Couldn't he be angry with any of the other girls or maybe someone he hasn't taken yet?"

"We can't know for sure that Olivia isn't the real target of this Unsub's rage. We just found out that this is a serial case, and I assure you that we will be looking into all potential threats against the victims, but we also can't rule out that Olivia may be the cause of this anger."

John remained quiet, deep in thought and racking his brain in an effort to come up with anybody that might have been in contact with his wife. His thoughts were cut short when a blaring alarm went through the house.

Both men stood up immediately. "That's our security alarm," John exclaimed.

"Someone must have found the jammer," Hotch said over the noise.

"Can anybody turn this thing off!?" yelled the detective. "Or better yet, turn the damn jammer back on!"

John rushed over and entered the security passcode and the alarm went dead. JJ came right inside with a slightly reddened face. "Sorry, I didn't actually think anything of it when I flipped the switch." Oops, she thought to herself. Next to her, Morgan snickered.

"So you found it?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, in the bushes, buried underneath the mulch. It looked recently disturbed so I tried digging."

"Send a picture of that to Garcia, I want her to analyze it – what model it is, the price, where someone could get something like that around here." Hotch ordered.

JJ nodded and headed into another room to call the tech analyst, thankful to excuse herself from being the center of attention.

Hotch turned back to John, who had gone impossibly pale.

"John, are you alright?" Hotch asked.

"He threatened her," John whispered.

"I'm sorry?" Hotch leaned in closer.

"He threatened her," John said a little louder. "About two months ago, Olivia's team had a case that went downhill fast. The guy went into cardiac arrest after being given medication that Liv suggested the team try to use to cure whatever disease they thought he had. They were running out of time and the team agreed it was their best option, so her boss okayed it… They couldn't prove that it was the medication itself that caused the arrest or if it was his disease – either way, they couldn't save him. Well, his brother was in the room the whole and somehow he just knew it was Liv's suggestion for the meds. He blamed her for his brother's death and… He threatened her. He said he would come find her… He said to her "You're mine."

"Did that scare Olivia?"

"Not really. Olivia deals with upset people all the time, people who say things they don't mean because they say it in the moment."

"Well it was important enough for her to tell you about it."

"Only because she felt guilty… Do you think it's him? Do you think he's got her?"

"It's a possibility, but we have a lot of work to do now. Thank you, John," Hotch said, standing up to reconvene with his team.

"Jeffrey Seaver"

The team had met up in one of the spare bedrooms and was on speakerphone with Garcia.

"Two months ago, his brother was admitted under the care of the diagnostics team. Since no formal report was ever made of the threat, I had to narrow it down to the patients who died around that time, which were unfortunately for her team… Three. But Jeffrey Seaver has a history of violence and as a kid, enjoyed, um, medical experiments on squirrels. He works as a stock clerk at a local grocery store."

"Garcia, I want all of his information."

"Already sent," Garcia said, hanging up. The team sat there for a moment, thinking about how likely it was that this was their Unsub.

That night, Reid was forced by the rest of the team to go home and get some sleep. Morgan had accompanied him to make sure that Reid actually got some rest while the rest of the team continued working on several theories.

Morgan hadn't thought it was possible for Reid to look any worse than he had a few days ago, but he had evidently been wrong. Reid looked like death warmed over and Morgan had been afraid to leave his side today in any case that Reid had decided to just collapse. Morgan sat on the couch while Reid slept in his bedroom. He pulled out his phone when it started buzzing in his pocket.

"It's not him," JJ said. "He's not our Unsub."

"Shit," Morgan exclaimed. He was sincerely hoping that Jeffrey had been their Unsub so that they could bring Olivia back home and Reid could finally get some help. He seemed like the perfect suspect… Too perfect. Too convenient. Morgan should have known that it's never the first person they suspect, no matter how well they fit the profile – if it were, anybody could do the jobs that he and his team do.

"Jeffrey works night crew at a local grocery store. Cameras and coworkers confirmed his whereabouts at the time Olivia was taken. He wasn't very sympathetic towards our cause, but unfortunately, he's not our Unsub," JJ finished.

"Alright, back to square one," Morgan said dejectedly. In the other room, Morgan heard a muffled cry, and he pushed himself off the couch. "I gotta go, JJ. Call me back if you find another lead," and Morgan hung up the phone. Before even opening the bedroom door, Morgan already knew what he was going to find.

Reid hadn't been asleep for more than a half hour and he was already violently tossing and turning on the bed, thrashing around as if trying to get away from an invisible attacker. His hands kept clenching and desperately grabbing at the sheets underneath him while he continued to whimper with tears rolling down his face.

Morgan took in his surroundings, allowing the scene to hit him right in the heart before he found himself able to move to Reid's side. Morgan felt himself swell with profound guilt – misguided guilt, he knew. He thought about all the nights Reid must suffer like this and wake up to find nobody there to comfort him. Morgan wished he could always be there, but he knew that was impossible.

Reid was crying out and begging, using words that Morgan couldn't quite make out. He gently shook Reid, trying to wake him up without frightening him even more. Reid began to fitfully push Morgan back, so Morgan grabbed him by the arms and shook with a little more force.

"Reid, man, you have to wake up." Morgan tried. "Reid!"

Finally, Morgan was able to jerk the younger man awake. For a split second, the look in Reid's eyes told Morgan that Reid was terrified and didn't know where he was.

"It's alright, Reid. You're safe. I'm here with you." It took Reid a minute to gather his surroundings, and then he scrambled up into a sitting position, immediately embarrassed at what Morgan must have seen. He quickly tried to wipe the tears from his face, repeatedly telling Morgan that he was fine.

"Tell me what happened. It's always good to talk about it," Morgan tried.

"I don't want to talk about it…" Reid said quietly. "I really don't."

"This is why you're so sick, Reid. You keep all of this stuff bottled up and you are one nightmare away from a complete breakdown."

Ignoring Morgan's comment, Reid said, "You don't need to stay here. I'm fine here by myself."

"I'm not leaving, Kid."

"Did they find Jeffrey?" Reid changed the subject.

Morgan sighed, "It's not him."

Reid just sat there and looked at his hands, concern washing over his face. He put his head in his hands and sat like that for a while until slowly sitting back upright. Morgan patiently sat watching him, silently worrying about how badly Reid was looking at the moment.

God I really wish Olivia was here right now, Morgan thought. As soon as Olivia went missing, Morgan knew it was his responsibility now to watch over Reid even more than he already had been, but that thought scared him.

Reid got up and went into the bathroom, turning around to only say, "I'm fine Morgan. Go back out to the couch."

Morgan knew he wouldn't get anywhere with Reid tonight, so he obeyed his friend's wishes and stepped outside of the bedroom. Sleep would not come easily for either of them that night.