"What's with the military police guys hanging around? No one back on campus mentioned their presence when they were telling me what to expect," a cadet asked.

"It's probably part of the base's increased security procedures. Didn't you hear what happened last week?" another cadet replied as he put his duffel bag with all his field gear down on an empty bunk next to the first cadet who had spoken.

"No," the first cadet replied, having sat down on his bed.

"One cadet was hurt and then within twenty-four hours another cadet was killed. Media reports say that neither incident was an accident," a third cadet chimed in.

"Yeah, my mother called me yesterday to convince me not to come. She's not to happy with me right now," the second cadet chimed in. "I have a feeling if anything else happens she's going to show up here to personally try dragging me home."

Reid tried to act as if he hadn't overheard the conversation. It wasn't the first time he had overheard cadets talking about what was going on here and it probably wouldn't be the last. Some of the rumors that were going on, even after both the army's and JJ's press releases, had Reid shaking his head. If the UNSUB wasn't caught soon, Reid had a feeling the rumors and panic would get even more out of control.

"Hey Martin, there's a free bunk here."

Reid looked in the direction of the voice to see the cadet he had spoken with at the airport, Ned Fergenson, standing near the lockers beside the bunk. Reid headed in his direction. He had to sleep somewhere, and so far Fergenson had been the only one who had spoken more than a few words to him. Reaching the bunks Fergenson was standing next too, Reid put down the gear he was carrying, relieved to be rid of the load.

"I think that thing weighs as much as I do," he stated, knowing it was an exaggeration, though his arms sure hurt from carrying the thing to the barracks.

Fergenson laughed. "Give it a few weeks and it won't seem that heavy at all," he commented. "Do you know how to make hospital corners on the bed?"

~Yes,~ Reid thought, thinking about his time at the academy. "No," he replied, as cadet Martin wouldn't have been exposed to that given his background.

"I'll show you. Its not hard at all, though I've been doing it since I was six years old. My father insisted on our rooms being as neat as a pin when I was growing up, and that included the beds."

Fergenson demonstrated by making Reid's bed for him. The undercover FBI agent felt guilty letting him do so but he had to remind himself he was working. His job was to blend in with the cadets using the alias that had been created for him. A twenty-year old college student from Nebraska, with no previous interaction with the army would not know how to make a bed to army standards.

~Hell, most twenty-year old college students probably wouldn't even both to make a bed,~ Reid thought, as he pretended to pay attention to Fergenson's demonstration. Reid soon realized that he wasn't the only one watching. Several other cadets in the vicinity of their bunks were watching too.

Following the demonstration, those watching set to making their own beds, while Reid helped Fergenson make his own bed. The two cadets then set about starting to square away their gear, both often referring to the diagram that was provided for doing just that. Fergenson chatted about his family and school friends while they worked and Reid was glad the other cadet on intermittenly asked him questions. Though the background he had been given was pretty thorough, Reid knew that the less details he had to give about his personal life the less chance there was of tripping up later down the line.

Reid had no idea how long they had been working when a booming voice sounded through the room. The FBI agent immediately recognized it as Sgt. Sullivan's. "Okay Cadets, I want everyone's attention." Reid, along with all the other cadets who were in the room at the time looked toward the sound of the voice. Sgt. Sullivan was standing just inside the door of the barrack. Behind him, another drill sergeant, whom Reid remembered seeing on the bus from the airport, stood silently watching.

Sgt. Sullivan started given them a lecture about what was going to be expected of them over the next four weeks. As he spoke, he started walking around the room. He had one cadet do ten push-ups when he found the cadets rubber duck leaning against the bed, on the opposite side of where the cadet was standing. While the cadet did push-ups, Sgt. Sullivan lectured them on the importance of securing your weapon. He then tore apart one made bed, which had a slight wrinkle in the blanket.

This was a different side of Sgt. Sullivan than Reid had met the night before. Sullivan had been at ease, and playful while the group had eaten. After the meal, when the subject of the investigation had come up, the sergeant had become serious. The playful manner had given way to a calm and serious attitude that had been different than this. Last night he had been on the passive side. Listening to what he was being told, offering his thoughts when he felt they were relevant, but his attitude had been one of wanting to know how he could help.

There was nothing passive about the man lecturing to the cadets right now. He wasn't listening. Instead, he was the one who wanted to be listened too. The one in control. The profiler in Reid could even classify the three seemingly different personalies of Sgt. Eric Sullivan. The first one, had been Eric Sullivan, the son and friend. The person he had grown up being. The second, had been Sgt. Sullivan, listening to his superior officer. Ready to do what he needed to do in order to fulfill his duties as an army sergeant. The man standing before him right now was Drill Sergeant Sullivan. To him, Reid and his fellow cadets weren't just some random college students here for an adventure. To Drill Sergeant Sullivan, they were all his responsibility. His responsibility to guide, teach and train what it meant to be a army officer. His responsibility to keep all of them safe so that they would be able to leave here and put what they learned during basic camp to use in whatever they chose to do.

Right then, other than his fellow agents on the BAU, Reid knew there wasn't anyone else he would rather have watching his back.

1720 hours:

The new cadets were about to have their first formation. As was usual, their was a lot of confusion out front of the barracks, though most of the cadets had assembled out front early. That would change later on, as things got busier, and the cadets learned what and where they were suppose to be in the formation. There would be some of them just joining the platoon right under the deadline of when they were required to be there.

Driving back to headquarters at the end of his shift, Captain Phillips glanced over at the gathered cadets. Someone caught his eye, and he pulled the jeep over to the side of the road. Putting the vehicle in park, he looked back at the gathered cadets, searching for the person he had thought he had seen.

~I'm sure I saw him. He shouldn't be here but I'm sure I saw him,~ Phillips thought as he scanned the crowd. He was about to get out of the vehicle when someone moved and the person he was looking for came into view. ~There he is! What is he doing here. I'll have to take care of him. Private Rex Jones needs to pay for what he has done. Anthony deserves justice.~

"Captain Phillips, can I do something for you?"

Captain Phillips brought himself out of his thoughts and looked in the direction of the voice. The FBI agent whom he had given a ride to the cadet in-processing that morning was standing by the side view mirror. The name on his uniform was Morgan.

~That's right, one of the agents coming here was suppose to be Major Morgan's brother. He's the last one I expected it to be though.~

"I'm on my way back to headquarters and I thought I'd stop by and see if you needed anything," Phillips replied thinking quickly for an excuse.

"No, things are under control. We'll let you know if you can help us out with anything."

"Okay, then. Good evening," Phillips said, with a nod as he reached for the gear shift.

Agent Morgan took a step back from the vehicle as the army captain put the jeep in gear.

~I'll have to think about this. Anthony will have justice but how do I go about it. The authorities have already failed. They let Rex Jones get away with murder but I won't. He'll pay. I just need time to plan.~

2100 hours:

Agent Derek Morgan opened the door to the hotel room, and walked inside. With Reid undercover, he now had the room to himself. As tired as he was though he wondered if he was going to be able to sleep, as he was worried about Reid. Sure Prentiss had taken over his watch position at the base, and Rebecca was planning on relieving the MP stationed outside the barracks at midnight, but he was still worried about the kid.

His cell phone rang and as he placed his room key on the desk, he reached for it with the other hand.

"Hello there, Baby Girl. Your voice is sweet music to my ears."

"Awww, that's so sweet to hear. Especially since I'm still at the BAU and its almost nine o'clock, though I'd do anything for my Chocolate God."

Morgan smiled at her reply. "Please tell me you've got some good news for me," Morgan said, as he sat down on the bed. He reached down with his free hand and pushing up one pant leg, removed Reid's gun from the ankle holster. He probably couldn't explain to anyone why he had replaced his own back-up piece with Reid's gun. Wasn't sure he could explain it to himself. What he did know, was that if they ended up in a situation where Reid might need his, then he wanted to be able to give it to the younger agent.

"Well, that depends on your definition of good news," Garcia replied, as Morgan opened a drawer in the bureau across from him, and tucked the gun between the front of the drawer and some clothes, before closing the drawer.

"Something that would help us wrap up this case up and get Reid off that base is what I would define as good news at this point."

"You really think Reid is in danger?" Garcia asked, the worry clear in her voice now. "I mean he's undercover on a military base, that's a somewhat control environment, and you guys are looking out for him."

"We're not going to let anything happen to him, Baby Girl," Morgan assured her, cursing himself for worrying Garcia. "Does that mean you didn't find anything out of ordinary with that list I gave to you?" Morgan asked trying to refocus the conversation away from Reid. He had called and given her a list of the drill sergeants and TAC's assigned to the battalion that Reid was with. If anyone sent up a red flag, then he wanted to be able to give those people some special attention while he had the battalion under surveillance.

"The names you gave me everyone came up clean. Some have had a more successful career than others but there's no sign of any major discipline actions in any of their files."

"Define minor, then."

"Well, there are two drill sergeants that have a reprimand for challenging a superior's orders, one of them is one of the female sergeants."

"The other one?"

"Sgt. Sullivan," Garcia said hesitantly, not sure how Morgan would react to finding out that she had checked into his friend's background too.

"Sullivan is working with us, Garcia. I didn't ask you to look into Eric's files."

"I know," Garcia said, apologetically. She had told Hotch she wouldn't mention the request to look into Sgt. Sullivan's file to Morgan but she suddenly felt the need to explain herself to her friend. "Hotch did, back when your sister suggested bringing him into the operation."

Morgan didn't say anything, though he found himself nodding. He should have known that Hotch would have left no rock unturned. Though part of him wanted to, Morgan couldn't be mad at his supervisor for doing so because he new Hotch had only done it to look out for Reid.

"So you couldn't find anything that fit the profile with Lt. Crothers?" Morgan asked, specifically asking about the one person who had raised his suspicions.

"No. His military career, though short, is exemplary. All his reviews have been positive, showing improvement on things that were marked as needing improvement in the previous review. He got married this past Christmas, the wife is living there with him on the base. They're currently expecting their first child. I actually ruled him out as a possible suspect without much research because he only arrived on base two weeks ago, for his assignment as a ROTC TAC officer." Garcia paused waiting for Morgan's reply. "Should I keep digging?" she asked, when he hadn't replied.

"I don't know," Morgan said, with a sigh. "Like you said, he doesn't really fit the profile nor was he on base for the first three incidents. Still, I don't know, he seemed to be paying a lot of attention to Reid today and he's not the TAC officer for Reid's platoon. Maybe I'm reading something that isn't there."

"Somehow, I doubt that. Your instincts are usually pretty dead on, my Brown Sugar," Garcia said sportively. "Let me go back a little further," she said, letting her voice trail off.

Morgan wandered toward the glass door as he waited for Garcia to speak up again. He appreciated her humoring him even if they didn't find anything. ~Perhaps I'm worrying about nothing,~ Morgan thought as he pulled open the glass door and stepped out on the balcony. He was leaning on the rail looking down at the pool when Garcia spoke up again.

"Okay, your the profiler, not me. You guys think differently than I do so I'm just going to tell you what I found and let you make the inferences."

"Okay, Sweetie, shoot."

"Alright, well Derrick Crothers, yes that's right Sugar, you've got something in common with him, grew up in a small town in West Virginia He was one of his town's local baseball stars and graduated second in his graduating class. Got a partial academic scholarship to several colleges, including Georgetown University which he went to. Though he wasn't recruited by the college for baseball he did manage to make the team his freshman year, quickly earning recognition. Sophomore year he joined the ROTC program there, presumably to help pay the tuition that the academic scholarship didn't cover as his parents were starting to hit financial troubles. Graduated from college and went into the army. Actually requested to help out at Camp Challenge stating that he wanted to give something back to the program that helped he fulfill his dreams. Kind of sweet if you ask me."

Morgan had only half listened to the ending of Garcia's dictation. The mention of Georgetown University had triggered something. He was trying to figure out what the connection could be and then it hit him. Reid had done several lectures there.

"Garcia, when did Crothers graduate?"

"Last spring."

"Major?"

"Ah, Criminal Justice. What is it?"

"Reid's done lectures at Georgetown. If Crothers attended one of his lectures, and with a major in criminal justice its likely that he did, he might have recognized him."

"You think he'd give Reid away?"

"I don't know. I'm not even sure I'm right. Garcia you've been a huge help as always. I'll talk to you later. I need to get a hold of Hotch."

"Of course. I'll try not to be jealous that you'd rather chat with Boss Man than me."

"Get some sleep, Baby Girl."

"Bye, Sugar."

Morgan ended his call with the FBI tech and immediately rang Hotch's phone. "Hotch, we may have a problem," Morgan told his supervisor, when Hotch answered the phone on the second ring.

"I don't want to give anything away. We're not sure Lt. Crothers recognized Reid for who he is, but we need to know. If we've got a security breach, than I want to pull Reid out now," Hotch told Major Morgan the following morning, as he paced the width of her office.

"I completely understand," Major Morgan said, stifling the yawn that threatened. After pulling guard duty last night, she had planned on heading home and getting some sleep this morning. The call she had received from Agent Hotchner had changed those plans. "Lt. Crothers will be joining us shortly. I'll let you handle the questioning. Do you think he's the one behind the murders?"

Hotch shook his head, as he reached one wall. Turning on his heel he started back in the other direction. "No. He hasn't been on base long enough to be our UNSUB. My concern right now is if he know Reid isn't a cadet and if he does, has he told anyone else. If the UNSUB knows we have an agent undercover he won't take the bait. He may try to leave the or he may just go into hiding. He could also escalate in his attacks if he sees us as a threat to him."

"You're saying we might all become targets."

Hotch nodded as there was a knock at the office door. Both occupants looked toward the door. Major Morgan recognized the young lieutenant standing there.

"Come in," Major Morgan called.

The door opened, and Lt. Crothers took a couple of steps into the office. "I was told you wanted to see me, ma'am," he said, glancing briefly over at Hotch who had stopped pacing and was standing on the far side of the office.

"Yes, Lieutenant. Have a seat," she told him, gesturing toward the chairs on the opposite side of desk from her. She waited while Lt. Crothers closed the door and then made his way over to the chair. He sat stiffly on the edge of the chair and looked across the desk at his superior officer, waiting for her to continue. "Lieutenant, this is Agent Hotchner of the FBI. He's here investigating the incidents that have occurred on base over the last couple of months," Major Morgan told him, gesturing to Hotch who was walking around the desk to stand slightly behind, her chair.

"It's an honor to meet you, sir," Lt. Crothers said, standing and offering his hand to Agent Hotchner. The two men shook hands and the lieutenant then sat back down. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Of course, sir."

The BAU supervisor could tell that Lt. Derrick Crothers was nervous but nothing beyond what most people were when he introduced himself as an FBI agent.

"I understand you attended Georgetown University. Graduated last year?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did you attend lectures while you were there."

"Quite a few sir. Some were required by professors as part of a course, others I just went for my own interest. No offense sir, but how is what I did when I was in college relevant in this situation?"

"I believe I'm the one who is asking the questions right now, Lieutenant?" Hotch said, trying to come off as intimidating without scaring the young army officer too much.

Lt. Crothers just nodded, unsure what to say.

"You were seen talking to a cadet shortly before five-thirty, yesterday evening, before formation."

"I'm a TAC officer. I need to talk to the cadets to do my job," the lieutenant replied. Hotch caught a hint of defensiveness in the officer's voice.

"Not necessarily cadets from another platoon," Hotch countered.

"Lieutenant," Major Morgan said, speaking up for the first time since introducing Hotch. "No one is suggesting that you've done anything wrong. Agent Hotchner is just looking for some answers."

Lt. Crothers held Major Morgan's gaze for a few moments and then looked up at Hotch.