"….And no, Spencer will not wake up to discover it was all a dream ;) Sorry, not this time…!"

White Light- Chapter 5

Phone Calls

Spencer woke up to the sound of his cell phone beeping. He groaned before picking up the device and throwing it against the wall. Suddenly realizing what he had just done, he exasperatedly got himself out of the bed and picked up the damned piece of the modern age.

"Apologize, Spencer." Katelynn glared from the bed.

He turned around, his eyes wide. "It's a phone; I'm not talking to my phone! I'm not crazy!"

"Says the man talking to the hallucinated dead girl." She muttered.

Groaning loudly, Spencer placed his phone down gently and said, "I'm sorry, phone." The action earned a smile from the girl, and he only glared in return. Staggering to his suitcase, he picked up his purple scarf, a plain white button-up, and a sweater vest. He lifted up his shirt, which was now stained with sweat and wrinkly, in favor of the fresher ensemble. Feeling Katelynn eyes on his, he turned around before taking the shirt off all the way.

"You can't possibly be self-conscious around me, can you?"

A few seconds later, Spencer turned around in his sweater vest and scarf. He just glared at Katelynn and picked up his messenger bag. "Please, try not to distract me while I'm working. I have to find out who's killing these kids!"

"Spencer, you all ready know who it is!" Katelynn yelled back.

"Then tell me, who is it!"

Katelynn glared at Spencer before standing up to get closer to him. "You still don't get it, do you?" she huffed. "I thought you were a genius!"

"I'm not arguing with you right now!" he hissed. Before Katelynn could respond, Spencer slammed the door shut behind him and left the hotel room.

~* WL *~

Aaron Hotchner sighed as he watched his youngest agent walk into the police department. He knew Reid needed to rest still, but he knew that wasn't going to happen. Instead of pointlessly arguing with him, he gestured for Reid to 'come here' and waited for him to tiredly make his way over to him.

"The newest victim is Abigail Mettle. Greg and Prentiss found the same letter found at the other scenes. You and Greg were right; this had to be someone the children knew personally. The letters weren't mailed; they were hand delivered." Hotch briefed Reid on the rest of the case, but before he dismissed him, he frowned at Spencer and asked him if he was feeling better.

Spencer nervously danced on his heels, avoiding eye contact with Hotch. He looked around the room before noticing the lack of Katelynn's presence. Ignoring the fact for now, he cleared his throat and nodded his head. "I feel a lot better than last night, but I'm still not one-hundred percent again."

"If you start feeling worse, tell me immediately and sit out for a while, okay?" Hotch said sternly.

"Of course." He nodded.

"I want you to visit the crime scene with Greg and Morgan. After that, we're going to finish the final touches of the profile and deliver it in the morning." With a dismissive nod from Hotch, Reid walked back out to the parking lot where Greg and Morgan were waiting. He quickly hopped into the back seat next to Greg, who offered a small smile, and let out a deep breath as Morgan started driving.

"Feeling better, Pretty Boy?" Morgan asked, his voice sounding more than serious.

"Pretty Boy?" Greg smirked, earning a playful smack from Reid. Greg quickly changed moods, though, and he became just as concerned as Morgan.

"I'm better than last night." He smiled. He wasn't lying, either. He was hoping that Katelynn had finally gone away, even if he did doubt it. Whatever he had done, he was glad he had. Seeing a victim- a child victim, nonetheless- following him around had really scared him at firs, and his mind had started to jump to unnecessary conclusions.

Another thought occurred to Reid as they drove off, and he assumed that his facial expression showed that as Morgan and Greg turned around to look at him, eyebrows raised.

"Got an idea?" Greg guessed.

"Uh, not exactly… My father called. I forgot to call him back." Reid dismissed.

"Oh, well, you can call him back now. You can catch up with us after you figure out what's up." Greg suggested.

"No, that's okay-"

"Reid, call your dad." Morgan glared. "He needed to talk to you about something important; I could tell!"

"Fine." Reid muttered, pulling his phone out of his pocket. Greg raised his eyebrows at Morgan; silently asking him what was up. He mouthed a 'later', and Greg nodded in understanding. He had known that his father was a touchy issue for Reid, but he knew now that there was a little more to it than he had originally though.

"Hey dad. You called earlier...?"

"Yeah. I heard you were in town, and I was wondering if I could talk to you about something over lunch if you could get away for a few hours…. or after your case ends, I guess." William replied. Even to Reid's ears, he could tell that Morgan was right. Something was definitely on his father's mind, and although he was still mad at him, he had a feeling this was a talk he couldn't afford to miss.

"Um…Of course. I don't know when we'll finish up, but we've made quite a lot of progress. I'll call you back later on and we could arrange something." Reid agreed.

"Good." William nodded. "I'll…I'll see you later." he added. "Catch the guy's who's doing this to these kids; I know you can."

"I hope you're right." Reid sighed. With that, he hung up. Reid quickly stuffed his phone back in his pocket and scrambled out of the car to catch up with Morgan and Greg. When he entered the room, Morgan gave Reid his 'we're going to talk about that later' look, but dismissed it for now. Instead, he focused back on the latest victim- Benjamin Riley. The boy hand strangled himself with fishing rope in the middle of his room, he dark brown hair now lay haphazardly over his pale white face on his bedroom floor. A letter had already been found.

"Benjamin was always a quiet kid." A woman in the corner of the room sniffled. "I never thought he was capable of this, though. He was so brilliant. God... I can't believe he's gone!"

Greg frowned as he approached the woman. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and escorted her out of her son's room. "Ms. Riley, I know how painful this must be…"

Spencer lost Greg's voice as he drifted out of the room, but as he bent down beside the young child, he gulped. These children hadn't done anything wrong. They didn't deserve to die like that…

"You okay, kid?" Morgan asked.

Reid stood up and nodded. "Yeah, I'll be okay." He looked around the room, trying to distract himself from his growing emotion, when something caught the corner of his eye. He walked toward the piece of paper and turned it over it his gloved hands. Realizing that it was a vital clue, he held it out to Morgan. "I think we're ready for a profile…"

~* WL *~

William Reid hastily walked into the Las Vegas police station with his briefcase in his hand. He hastily opened the doors and looked for the person he had came to see. Quickly, he ran over to catch his attention, only to be greeted with a frown and an arched eyebrow.

"Mr. Reid, your son isn't here right now…"

"I know, Agent Hothcner. I didn't come here to see him. I came here to protect him."

"… Horrible cliffie. I bet you all know where this is leading to! BTW, you don't actually know, cuz I'm about to turn things around again! Hehehe…. You should know that in a chapter or two, things are going to get pretty intense for Reid, and the focus of this story is really going to shift to him even more. Thnx for reading; hoped you liked it…!"