That same morning, Reid was waiting at the train station. The platform was just as crowded as it always was, but all around him he saw people who looked pale and ill. He would inch away from one particularly ill-looking person, only to find himself running into another. All around him, a chorus of coughs and sneezes could be heard above the noise of passing trains. It was enough to make Reid's skin crawl.

The actual train ride was even worse. When he got on, he took a seat in the back, where there was the most room between seats. The person who sat down in the seat nearest to his looked like death warmed over, but Reid knew he couldn't get nearly as far away from this person as he wanted to without seeming rude.

Meanwhile, Rossi arrived at the BAU to find the first floor noticeably quieter and more sparsely populated than usual. There were only about half as many other agents and office workers darting around and heading toward their own units as there normally were. When he got to the elevator there was no one waiting, and when it opened there was only one other person inside. He was surprised to see that it was Monte, the technical analyst from the IRT. It took a minute to recognize him, until Rossi realized why. Monte was uncharacteristically pale, his eyes looked heavy and bloodshot, like he hadn't slept in a few days, and besides a muttered 'good morning' the usually cheerful computer geek didn't say anything.

When Rossi exited the elevator on the sixth floor, he was Emily coming down the hallway.

"Morning Rossi…"

"Morning, Emily, what you trying to beat me here or something?" He asked.

"No, there just wasn't much traffic out." She replied.

"Yeah, I noticed. I noticed the same thing downstairs, it's like half the agents in this building have just disappeared."

"Well, according to the memo I got from the director there have been an unusually high number of agents and support staff calling in sick the last few days. He thinks it's because of the flu epidemic. Speaking of which, I just got off the phone with JJ…" she said.

"Don't tell me…"

"No, everyone at their house is fine, but they've closed the schools to stop it spreading among the students and DC Metro is having the same issue we are with being down quite a few people, so she has to wait for the babysitter to come and watch the boys. She'll be a little late but at least she's coming. We're lucky, so far no one's called in. Speaking of which, Kevin's out sick, so now I get to go tell Garcia that she's pulling double duty."

"Bet she'll love that." Rossi replied.

"Well, at least we don't have an active case, as far as I know anyway. I'll see you later…"

"See ya." Rossi replied with a smile as he and Emily headed off in different directions.

Emily went down the hall to Garcia's office and knocked on the door.

"The lair's open…" She heard Garcia call out from the other side.