The Stalker.

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

Derek Morgan had not taken too well to Flanders but he still wouldn't have wished this on him. Well not seriously anyway. They walked carefully into to the room, still not sure if this new victim was dead or alive. Prentiss put a hand on Reid's shoulder when he started to rush forward. "Wait – let them check things out first." And a gentle squeeze. She watched Hotch's fingers move over Flanders and rest on his neck where they stayed for a short while. He looked up and nodded. Prentiss pulled out her phone and called in the paramedics.

They quickly got the cuffs off and untied the strap and pulled Flanders to the floor to look at his injuries better. Reid was there now looking down on the man he had been having coffee with. This was his fault.

"I'm so sorry." He muttered as he crouched down next to him. "I didn't think you were in danger." Again he felt a hand on his shoulder. This time he swatted it away. "I don't understand. Why is someone doing this? What is the point in this except to freak us all out?"

Flanders had obviously been hit in the face a few times. The blood under his nose was still sticky, and he had been bleeding from his mouth, though if that was internal injuries or from the cut on his mouth they couldn't tell. He had nasty bruising on his neck and Reid had noted that the bare foot was black around the ankle. He was breathing though – shallow and shuddering, but he was breathing. They stood and waited for the EMT's. They walked quietly around the room taking in what they were seeing. Big display cabinets full of very strange objects. Old – ancient – and peculiar and book upon book – heavy leather bound and in protective casing. Tiny dolls and massive mannequins made the room feel like a creepy occult section of a museum.

Reid stayed with Flanders tentatively brushing his hand over Floyd's face and pushing his hair off his face. All he could think of was 'This is all my fault. I have done something and this is all my fault, but why was he left alive when all the others have been killed. "Why?"

He moved away when the medics arrived giving him oxygen and rolling him gently onto a body board. "I want to go to the hospital with him." Reid announced, but a sharp shake of the head from Hotch let him know that wasn't going to happen.

"I'll go with him." It was Prentiss. She looked across to Reid who obviously completely shaken by this whole scene. He looked down and watched the EMT's open Floyd's shirt and gasp at the extent of the bruising on his ribs. The first time he had seen the chest of the man he desired and it was covered in marks from a nasty kicking.

……………….

They stood in a confused huddle outside Flanders home and watched the ambulance rush the still unconscious Flanders to hospital. Reid was standing slightly back from Hotch and Morgan with his arms wrapped tightly around himself. Derek turned to look at him. "Don't go blaming yourself Reid. This isn't your fault." Empty words really. "This is the result of some sick psychopath. We will find out who is doing this." Reid looked up at Morgan and nodded. The CSU had arrived and were dusting and marking and photographing. They needed to know what they had touched and how they found everything when they arrived. Typical Feds stomping over the evidence.

………………..

From across the street standing just where he couldn't be seen was a small man in dark clothes. He stood and smiled and watched the ambulance pass with the flashing lights and stepped back and disappeared.

………………

"Reid." Aaron's voice made him jump. "You are staying with me tonight."

"Hotch, I don't think that is a good idea. What about the safe-house?" Reid was still recovering from his last visit to the Hotch household.

"Haley is in a hotel and under protection. I need you with me."

Reid was thinking this was exactly the sort of thing which had made her react the way she had. "If you don't mind, I would rather go back to Morgan's place, if that is OK with him."

Morgan heard and looked up and nodded. "Maybe a hotel again. My place isn't really suited to two guys." Reid smiled a little awkwardly and said a quiet thank you.

……………

Prentiss stood outside the room whilst they checked Flanders over. He had started to wake up now and seemed a bit confused. They had sedated him slightly and given him morphine to take away the pain he must have been in from the thorough slapping he had received. Emily needed to know when it would be alright to go and talk to him. She had a lot of questions. They made sure Flanders was comfortable and gave Prentiss the nod.

She stood at the foot of the bed and looked over to the man who was apparently a friend of Reid's. What was someone living in a place like they had just seen doing travelling on the subway? Wasn't that where Reid said he met him?

She waited until he looked over at her and she flashed her badge "Agent Prentiss. I need to ask you some questions. Do you feel up to it?"

He nodded slowly. "I don't remember much."

She walked around to the side of the bed. "We need to go further back than today. I want to know how you met Reid."

"I stalked him." Emily frowned. "Don't worry, it was done in a good way. I first came across him at a second-hand bookshop in the city. I asked who he was. I hired someone to get his address for me. I was told he caught the subway every – well nearly every morning, and so set about watching. In a harmless way. Just looking at him. I am a collector, and in a way I added him to my collection of desirables."

"Stalking an FBI agent is not the most sensible thing a person can do." She was making notes.

He half smiled at her. "It's all in the chase Agent Prentiss. That's where the fun is. When you have everything you could ever want, what else is there?"

"Drugs - You have been in rehab, you have had both heroin and cocaine addictions, and you drink too much." She stated.

"I drink too much. I drink when I am feeling down. It's an outlet. Do you know who hit me?" He staring right into her eyes.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. Did you see anything? Hear voices?" She was still making notes.

"That was the strange thing. They or he or whoever - attacked in silence. I couldn't even hear breathing. I saw nothing. Almost like it was the shadows hitting me. A bit creepy."

Prentiss nodded "I can imagine so." At which point did you loose consciousness?"

Flanders closed his eyes and laid back down on his pillows. "At about the same time they kicked me in the head."

…………..

The explosion ripped through the upper most floor of the hotel. Haley felt the room she was in just below shudder and the central light shook then went out. The room was plunged into darkness as she listened to the fire alarms screaming around the building. Jack opened his mouth and let out an ear piercing wail.

"It's OK Jack…it's ok." She knew there was agents out side her room. They will come and tell her what to do. They will. Why are they not doing anything? She walked quickly to the door with a distressed Jack safely in her arms. She tested the door with her finger tips then carefully touched the door handle. All seems OK. They weren't hot. There shouldn't be a fire out there. Cautiously she turned the handle and pulled the door towards her. She was right. No fire – yet and by the looks of it, no agents either. The emergency lighting had come on and the passage was filled with an eerie red glow. It was then she noticed someone laying on the floor. It wasn't one of the agents who had been there. They had been in suits, but this person had an FBI flak jacket on with dark trousers and a yellowish coloured shirt. She stood and stared. He was laying on his front with his hands above his head and his fingers splayed.

"Oh my god - Reid is that you?"

She moved quickly to the form on the floor and saw a puddle of blood oozing out from around his head, and she could smell the unmistakable smell of half cooked flesh. She looked down at an envelope he had under his hand. It had her name on it. 'To Haley' She quickly snatched it up and stuffed it in her pocket.

She closed her eyes as her stomach turned and left the body on the floor, running for the fire exit with Jack still screaming in her arms.

………………

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!