Chapter 2: Reintroduction

The following morning Reid walked behind Gideon into the FBI offices; a visitors badge on his chest, as his was stored safely in Hotch's office. He couldn't help but feel some of the eyes on him, and while he knew that no one but the team and Strauss knew why he'd been gone, the eyes made him feel like they all knew.

They walked up to Hotch's office and took a seat until Hotch hung up the phone, which had rung as they entered. "So, what's going on?"

Reid looked at Gideon, who took the lead. "Spencer thinks he can help with our current case. And I think he'd be useful too."

"How so?" Hotch asked.

Reid cleared his throat, "Because I know who's behind it, and I'm the only one who can get you on the inside." Hotch remained silent waiting for more, so Reid started again. "It's Connors."

Hotch's face remained stoic, but his eyes gave away his feelings on the situation. "That is not a good idea, Reid."

"I know it's not, but do you have any other idea's that are better?" There was no reply. "Look, it sucks; I don't want to do it just as much as you don't want me to, but trust me when I say there is no other way. The only way to bring him down is from the inside. You remember how well the raid on his compound worked last time? He got away, and he'll get away again if you don't let me help. I don't want to see any more dead young men tossed aside like trash because of him. I could have been one of them, so I have to help stop it. I have to!"

Hotch listened to the speech, noting how impassioned Reid was. He considered it for a long while before replying. "Alright, you can help, but not as an agent. As a civilian consultant, which means one member from the team must be with you at all times. Understood?"

Reid nodded once, "Yes, sir. That's all I ask for."

Hotch picked up the receiver of his phone again, "I'll arrange for you to have a consultants tag, you should head down and get your picture taken for it right away. The rest of the team should be here in an hour, I want you to sit in with us while we discuss options."

Gideon and Reid stood and Reid gave a small smile to Hotch. "Thank you, sir."

Hotch nodded, "Don't disappoint me."

Reid followed Gideon out of the room, and back to the elevators. It was going to be a long day, but the best one in months.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Reid and Gideon were last to arrive at the meeting, but they received the most welcome. Everyone stood to give Reid a hug and welcome him back. The fact he wasn't officially back didn't seem to matter to any of the team, including Hotch, though he didn't show it as much. The dynamic felt right again, and that was what mattered.

They took their seats; Reid's new consultant badge, hot off the press, was pinned to his chest to replace the visitors one. They began to review the evidence for a third time.

"Seems to me these were meant to look like simple overdoses. Had autopsy's and tox screens not been done, there never would have been a connection." Prentiss said and received nods of agreement.

Reid cleared his throat, "They're experiments. Connors had forced me to work for him, trying to come up with a Super Drug that was stable enough to be taken and not cause an overdose. OD the client, and you no longer have a client. But that's how I knew it was him, the combination of drugs in the victims system is exactly what he had me working on. Obviously he hasn't perfected it yet. I might be one of the only people in the world who could make it work." Reid said, shocking himself with his own boldness about his abilities. "What I mean is, he'll keep experimenting until he gets it right, but I don't think he ever will. So unless we can stop him, he'll keep killing people with this drug."

"Sounds pretty straightforward, but how do we get to him?" JJ asked, remote in hand.

"Through me." Reid said simply.

Morgan raised a brow. "No way. Absolutely not. You shouldn't get anywhere near him, kid."

Reid frowned, "I know that, but there is no other way. I can do this. I know I'm strong enough to do this. Please, trust me, Morgan."

"We just don't want to see you fall back to where you were. It's…" Morgan struggled with the words to use without losing his macho image, "…painful, for the rest of us too."

"I know that. I know that if I went back to that dark place, I would be hurting more than myself, but I also know that I have the tools, the life-skills, to not go back to that. I learned the skills in rehab, and I want to stay clean so badly, that I know I won't let myself slip. I won't forget what I learned." Reid looked at Morgan, making eye contact, honesty in his gaze.

After a moment of consideration, Morgan smiled, "It's impossible for you to forget what you learn."

The statement seemed to lighten the mood of the room.

"Okay, but you can't go in there alone." Morgan said.

"I won't be; rule is I have to have one of you with me at all times, so, I'll have backup." Reid replied.

Hotch cleared his throat and gathered the attention again. "And with that settled, we can get back to discussing the case. Reid, what do we know about his defenses."

"That they're impossible to get into without an invitation. The doors are a foot thick, and held fast with bolts, and backup hydraulics. You'd have to cut the main power, and the backup power, which would be located inside, to get past that part. And then you'd have to cut your way through the bolts. By that point he'd be long gone. Even if you cover the exits, I wouldn't put it past him to have some sort of underground escape route." He took a breath and continued, "What we need to do is get me, and whoever is with me, in to a meeting with him. He's a diplomat in attitude, he likes fair trades, and deals. He's all about business and protecting his bottom line. We need to come up with a way to use that against him."

There were nods around the room, but no suggestions as to how to go about doing such.

"Great," Hotch said, "I want Prentiss and Jason to start working on that, and Garcia to look into his finances, and find out anything you can. JJ I want you to hit up any reporter contacts you have to see if they've ever done any research on him that never made it to print, or on air, and why. Finally, Morgan, you're with Reid for now, I want you to get started on setting up that meeting. You need to do anything you can to convince him you need to see him. Is that clear, everyone?"

Once more, nods of agreement circled the room and everyone stood to go off to do their assigned tasks.

Hotch put a hand on Reid's shoulder before he could exit the room. "I'm glad you're here. This won't be easy, but I'm going to trust you. This is your one chance, Reid. Make us all proud."

Reid nodded with a smile at the slightly cliché line. "I will. I promise."