The team had set their alarm clock at 6 o'clock in the morning of that day, so they'd have time to get ready –shower, dress up, have breakfast- before proceeding to the next crime scene. But the alarm clock had been of no use to Reid, as he had woken up from a nightmare at three o'clock, and hadn't been able to fall asleep since. Although Reid usually remembered every single thing in his life, he could not remember what his dream- nightmare was about.
"Damn it! I have an eidetic memory! I'm supposed to remember this!" he thought "Umm, no I'm not. This was a creation of my subconscious; an eidetic memory doesn't allow me to remember that!" he corrected himself "Oh, great, now I'm talking to myself" Reid said realizing he had said the last couple of sentences out loud.
The young genius ended up spending the rest of the night -well, morning, actually- trying to remember his nightmare and making shadow puppets out of boredom. Then, at 5:40 he showered, and was out of the shower and dressed by six, then he waited in the hotel's restaurant for the rest of the team. Since the rest of the team had set their alarm at the time Reid was already clean and dressed, he waited for quite a while.
"Hey, Pretty Boy! How long have you been waiting here?" Morgan asked when he arrived at the restaurant at 6:30 and saw Reid randomly folding up his napkin.
"Oh, hey Morgan! Euh…I've been here since about…six, I think" Reid answered, looking up from the table.
"Six?" Reid nodded "We were supposed to set our alarm at six, you didn't?" Morgan asked surprised.
"Oh, no, I did." Reid responded, not seeming to be able to give a reasonable explanation for him being up so early. At least, not one he wanted to give. Morgan looked confused:
"I don't get it. If you set your alarm at six then why were you up and ready by six?"
"Umm...euh…I just, euh, woke up early?" Morgan smiled a little bit and replied:
"Heh, you suck so bad at lying, it's actually cute!" Reid blushed, as Morgan appeared worried and flirtatious at the same time. "So, you gonna tell me what this is all about?" Reid sighed.
"It's nothing, I just…sort of had a nightmare, all right?" he said looking back to the folded napkin he was holding. Now Morgan only looked concerned, but just when he was about to ask what Reid's nightmare was about, Rossi and Prentiss walked in.
"Good morning." Rossi said, Reid and Morgan replied. Some minutes later JJ and Hotch arrived, and they all had breakfast. They had gotten the Eleanor Powell's address from Garcia and had agreed to meet the Arizona PD at six thirty at her house. After breakfast, they all got in the car, and Hotch drove. The ride lasted about twenty minutes, and every now and then, Morgan would glare at Reid suspiciously, while the rest of the team was completely ignorant to the fact that Reid wasn't exactly fine that morning. Not only had he had a nightmare he didn't remember, but also had he only had about four hours of sleep.
When they arrived at Eleanor's house, they only saw a couple of people waiting. It was obvious the crime had occurred some time ago, even if it was only two weeks. The previous crime scene had seemed more recent, although it was a week older. The team stepped out of the car, and walked toward the person who seemed to be in charge.
"What did you say his name was?" asked Hotch.
"Umm," JJ looked through some papers "Nathaniel Sharp"
"Okay, thanks."
When the team reached the agent, Hotch got the man's attention.
"Agent Sharp?"The man turned around to face Hotch and the rest of the team.
"That's me. You're from the BAU?" He asked, putting off his cigarette against the wall.
"Yes, we are. This is SSA Aaron Hotchner," JJ signaled at Hotch "SSA Emily Prentiss, SSA David Rossi, SSA Derek Morgan and Doctor Reid. I'm Jennifer Jareau, the media liaison, you can call me JJ"
The man nodded and guided the team in the house. He was in his mid-thirties and was obviously a hard smoker, judging by the jaundice in his eyes, his yellow teeth and the half empty pack of cigarettes in the back pocket of his pants.
Eleanor Powell's house was small.
He led them to the kitchen. There was no longer any blood, and everything else appeared clean and in its place as well.
"She was found right there. She had been stabbed twenty-two times; he used the knife she was cooking with." Agent Sharp introduced.
"Was there any money missing? Jewelry?" Reid asked
"Nothing."
"Well, it matches the MO of the Sarah Fisher murder: murder weapon found on-scene, multiple stab wounds, nothing stolen." Morgan said.
"Agent, where through did the UNSUB enter the house?" asked Hotch.
The agent looked a little confused at the use of the word "UNSUB" but assumed it –in some way- meant the killer, so he answered:
"He came in through the garage door. It's directly linked with the kitchen."
"Was the garage door locked?" Reid asked
"No, she didn't lock it."
"Ever?" Reid asked again
"Ever."
"Why?"
"She, uh, lost the keys."
"He must have known that." Rossi commented.
"So he does watch them?" Prentiss asked
"I think so. And if he doesn't, he knows them." Hotch answered
"You think he knows them?"
"It's possible. We can't know yet for sure." Hotch turned to agent Sharp "Thank you very much, agent Sharp, I believe we're done here. We'll keep you posted."
"All right." The agent replied, pulling out another cigarette.
They all said their farewells and headed back to the car. Morgan was still wondering what Reid's nightmare had been about, and the couple of times he had looked at him throughout the ride, Reid hadn't looked back –even though Morgan was almost sure he knew he was looking at him- and he had looked very uncomfortable, so Morgan stopped.
By the time they arrived at the hotel, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and the team agreed to meet in the restaurant for lunch at two-thirty, to give themselves a little time to rest.
OOOXOOOXOOO
Reid went up to his room and put his go-bag down on the ground. He was exhausted. The day hadn't been a very hard one, but he had woken up very early. Reid went to the bathroom, washed his face with ice-cold water, realized he was still tired, decided to take a nap and laid down on his bed. Before he knew what had happened, he had fallen fast asleep.
OOOXOOOXOOO
After arriving at the hotel, Morgan got in the elevator, walked through the hallway and entered his room. He wasn't tired like Reid, but for some reason unknown even to himself, he had a bad feeling about this case. He didn't know if it was Reid's nightmare which made him feel that way, or if it was…well, something else. Finally he lay down on his bed and watched TV until two-twenty-five.
OOOXOOOXOOO
When Morgan arrived at the restaurant, he saw Prentiss, Hotch and Rossi already sitting at a table with menus.
"So what're you all having?" Morgan asked a little excited.
"I don't know yet." Hotch answered "But I think I'll have lasagna."
Rossi chuckled "Yeah, I really don't know yet, not like Hotch here."
"Me neither" Prentiss added, just when JJ walked in, with wet hair. The team, minus Reid, looked at her.
"What? I took a shower. To freshen up, you know?" They nodded. "Hey, where's Reid?"
"He's not here yet" Hotch answered. "Morgan, could you go check on him?" Morgan nodded and walked away.
OOOXOOOXOOO
Morgan stood in front of Reid's hotel door and knocked three times, then waited a second and knocked once more, like the team had decided some years ago, to prevent unnecessary casualties. No answer. Morgan tried again. He waited about a minute and just when he was about to try again, he heard something move inside. He waited some seconds more, and Reid opened the door.
"Morgan! Hey, what's up?" Reid's hair was shooting to every possible direction, and he looked even more tired than always.
"What's up? We agreed to meet down at the restaurant at two-thirty, it's almost two-fifty."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, okay, I'll be down in no time." The young genius said as he closed the door in Morgan's face.