A.N.: Happy New Year to everyone! This chapter was quite easy to write, with all the wonderful comments you guys wrote to the previous one:) Now I have another set of pretty rough exams this week and the next, so the next chapter might be late a bit, but I'll try my best as always. Beta-read by REIDFANATIC.

Chapter Six

One day earlier

Reid sat in the driver's seat of his car, panting and shaking, laying his forehead on the steering wheel. He had parked down next to a park a few minutes ago and now he was trying to calm himself down. His heart was still racing, his hands were cold and sweaty at the same time. His arm ached where the rolling pin had hit it and he could feel his head too.

Calm down, it's over.

He would never have imagined that this would happen to him. His mind was working at double speed. Who the hell were these guys and why on earth did they want to hurt him? They were dressed like FBI agents – they knew that he was waiting for the escort group! But how? He himself was only informed a couple of seconds before they had knocked on the door! And if he hadn't noticed the lack of the car and the badges, they would have taken him away to God-knows-where!

But it's over now. Calm down. Take deep breaths.

Someone was after him, there was no doubt about that. But who could that be? Reid forced his mind to work harder, recalling the persons involved in their latest case, and the one before it, and so on. He couldn't think of anyone who would want to take revenge on him. They caught the criminals. The last killer had no relatives. The one before the last had a brother, but he was in prison. The one before…

Stop that. You're not getting anywhere. Calm down and call the team.

The team… Why had that mysterious avenger targeted only him and not someone else on the team? Reid now tried to think of criminals whom he had more contact with than usual. Nothing. They were all behind bars by now. Or dead.

He was suddenly startled by the ringing of his cell phone. Fortunately he had put it in his pocket after he hung up on Garcia so it wasn't left in his apartment like his gun.

"Yeah?" He answered the phone with a trembling voice.

"Sweetcheeks where are you?" Garcia's tone was full of worry. "You should be on your way here with the escort group I mentioned. But they just called in, saying you're not at home."

"Yeah, I'm not," Reid swallowed, then continued, "I was attacked."

There was a second of silence on the other side of the phone, then: "What?"

"I… I don't know, there were these two guys," Reid tried to explain, his voice getting higher and his speech speeding up, "I thought they were the guys you sent. I let them in but they had no badges and then they've turned on me…"

"Okay, okay, honey, just calm down, you say this happened after we talked?"

"Yes!" Reid said, "They made a big mess! Didn't that escort group see it? I even managed to knock out one of them but the other one probably carried him away…"

"That's strange." There was something suspicious in Garcia's voice.

"Why?"

"The agents who were to escort you here… said they didn't find anything. Your apartment was neat, everything in place, and there was nothing odd apart from the door being open…"

"What?" Reid couldn't believe his ears. "It can't be! We were fighting, knocked over my coffee table, a lot of books and papers were scattered all around the living room, I remember! And… and the mirror in my bathroom has broken! Didn't they see it?"

Garcia was silent for a moment. "There was nothing. No scattered papers, no shards."

"How could that be?" The young agent was extremely confused. "Have they… cleaned up after themselves? But they had no time! Garcia, when exactly did the escorting agents arrive at my place?"

"About half past seven, I think."

"And when did you call me?"

"Let me see… I'd say about seven fifteen."

"That's it," Reid went on excitedly, "I was gone at least a good ten minutes before they'd have arrived."

"You say that in those ten minutes your attackers gathered themselves up, cleaned up the mess and left?"

"This must be the explanation." Reid said, self-assured, but then suspicion rose in him. "You don't believe me?"

"Why wouldn't I believe you if you say it? Reid, you're a genius but you can ask some stupid things sometimes. Do you think that e-mail had something to do with it all?" Garcia changed subject.

The e-mail… Reid had completely forgotten about that. Someone threatened him, then someone killed Mr. Jacobson, trying to make him look suspicious, then someone attacked him at home. The letter said, the sender had friends in the prisons… so he probably wanted to get Reid locked up. This would explain Jacobson's murder, but not the attack. Where would those fake agents have taken him if they had gotten him?

"Reid?"

"Um… I don't know, maybe yes. But there's no way we'll ever find out who sent that."

"Listen Reid, you should come here right away. You can explain all the details later, but Strauss is quite pissed. Don't make her think that you're running away, okay?"

"Of course," Reid agreed. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

"All right, honey, see you then."

Reid's hands were still shaking as he put away his cell. Strauss is pissed… but she can't send him to prison just because of this! There's no reason to be nervous, just go there and tell them everything. But would they believe him? They'd found nothing in his apartment. It looked like he left of his own will. Stop that, he said to himself, you don't have any other choice than trusting the team to help you.

He sighed and started the car's engine.

"Agent Hotchner, I expect you to give me your subordinate's whereabouts and a good reason why he hasn't shown up yet, right now." Erin Strauss' angry voice filled the room, which was already full of tension. Hotch was standing in front of her, the usual stoic expression on his face didn't show how nervous he really was. However, he wasn't worrying for himself but for the youngest member of the team who'd vanished from his apartment twenty minutes ago.

"I will, as soon as I find out myself," he answered calmly. "At the moment I have no idea why he left his home, being aware of the fact that he was supposed to be escorted here. Our technical analyst is currently trying to reach him or track down his cell signal."

"You'd better find him soon. His behavior is unacceptable." Strauss shook her head in disbelief. "He's a grown man and a trained FBI agent, does he think he can escape us?"

"I'm sure he's got a pretty good reason," Hotch said, "I know him, he'd never act so randomly of his own will."

Strauss nodded, "I believe you, Agent Hotchner, because I'm aware that you know your people very well. But it would be better for Agent Reid too if he didn't put up a fight with his superiors."

Hotch nodded shortly too, then turned away and left the office. He headed straight for Garcia. The others were already gathered around her; they had heard that she was speaking to Reid and they'd hurried there to catch the last words.

"Did you reach him?" The team leader asked.

Garcia nodded and looked at her boss with anxious eyes. "He says he was attacked."

"What?"

"He ran away from his home, because according to him, two men dressed as FBI agents came to his apartment right after we spoke for the first time. He let them in but they attacked him. He fought back and managed to knock out one of them and ran away," Garcia explained. "But when the real agents arrived about ten minutes later, they found the apartment clear and neat, no sign of any struggle; but Reid said there was a big mess, papers and mirror shards on the floor…"

"Did you tell him that he must come here right away?"

"Of course sir, and he agreed. He sounded very terrified, my poor baby! I'm sure he didn't make it up, but we have no idea who could be after him."

"We'll try to make everything clear as soon as he's here," Hotch said with rare sympathy in his voice. "What did he say, when will he arrive?"

Garcia swallowed. "In a couple of minutes. I assume about five or ten. He can't be far."

"All right then," Hotch said, looking at JJ, Prentiss and Morgan who were standing in shocked silence. "Don't worry, we'll handle this. There will be no more problems when he gets here."

But Reid didn't show up after five minutes. Nor did he after ten, nor even after thirty.

However, it took him only four minutes to get to the BAU building, maybe because while he was driving away from his home in horror, he unconsciously steered in the direction of his workplace. Maybe because he knew that if there was a place where he could get help, it was the BAU and if everyone in the world turned their back on him, his team wouldn't.

His heart was still beating in his throat as he parked almost in front of the main entrance. His hands were shaking too; he didn't even know how he was able to drive all along. He took deep breaths and tried to overcome his nervousness. What would greet him on the other side of the door when he walked in? All the while he was driving he'd had no doubts that this was the only reasonable place to go, but now questions were rising in his mind. Garcia said Strauss was pissed. Could she really arrange things so that he could go to prison? If there was no proof that he was really attacked in his apartment, he practically had no reason to run away. Everyone would think he wanted to escape the FBI, escape the law!

No way. Since he'd been serving the law for so long now and had mostly met successful cases, Reid believed in the victory of justice. Still, a small voice in his head kept telling him that he would somehow be punished. Maybe he wouldn't be sent to prison, but would be locked up for a couple of days… and at that moment fear ripped through him. The letter! The mysterious e-mail sender said he had friends in the prisons… and that he, Reid, was dead! So he would be in deep trouble in any kind of prison… They would take their revenge on him there!

When he was speaking with Garcia, the idea of him being sent behind bars seemed so unreal. But now, as he was facing the BAU building, it was slowly becoming much more real. Why not? Even if he wasn't sentenced or even sent to court, he could very probably be locked up as long as the Bureau investigated the case…

Like you had any other choice than to go in there and face them.

Reid had to admit that he didn't have. If he went away once more, everything would be much worse. He'd go in, tell them everything including the threatening e-mail and if need be, he'd ask for a solitary cell and strong protection. He wouldn't act like a coward.

Just as he decided and lifted his hand to open the door, something caught his eye. Well it was rather a someone. A man in a black suit, leaning against a silver colored car, crossing his arms on his chest and looking towards the entrance of the building. Reid's eyes narrowed. Was it only his paranoia or did that man really look very familiar?

Come on, you're ridiculous. Most of the FBI agents dress like that.

But now, just as if he was trying to confuse Reid's thoughts, another man appeared behind the silver car, looking the same, only…

For a brief moment Reid thought he was seeing things. On the second man's forehead there was a bandage, half hidden behind his hair but it was there. Right at the place where Reid's attacker was bleeding after he'd hit his head on the coffee table…

The young agent's mouth stayed partly open in deep shock, and he felt cold sweat break out above his eyebrows. He couldn't believe what he saw. They were watching the building. They were waiting for him.

Reid automatically reached for his phone to call someone, but he never made it. Suddenly the first man looked right in his direction; although he couldn't see through the darkened windshield, he had clearly spotted the newly arrived SUV. He motioned to his partner and they set off towards Reid. The young agent just sat in his seat, unable to move, fear paralyzing his body.

My God, help me. What am I going to do now?

I soooo know you're addicted to cliffies...:D