I do not own Criminal Minds. My thanks to my sister for being my beta reader. I welcome any and all reviews.

Chapter #32

Morgan drove Reid toward Ashley's house. "Thanks for the lift. I thought that I could take Ashley's car back to the Ashburtons so at least she will have her car when she goes back to work."

"She is going back to work," Morgan asked, paying attention to the road.

"Yes, I have tried to talk her out of it. Take more time off, at least until we can figure out of what to do. But she basically said that she wasn't going to let him run her life."

"Basically?"

"She used a couple of words to describe him," Reid answered, not wanting to repeat them to Morgan. But he could see Morgan smiled from the corner of his eye. "I have a week to try to convince her to take more time off. I was more focused on getting her to stay home and letting me pick up her stuff. You know that this is going to be hard going back so soon." Morgan agreed.

A few minutes had past between the two agents when Morgan smiled as he looked over at Reid. "What?"

"It's all starting to make sense," he said.

"What make sense?"

"For the last couple of months, I noticed something was different about you. And all of the sudden, you were buying postcards. The mysterious phone calls that would take you out to the hallway when we shared a room or texting someone in a corner of the room."

"Does everyone know about the postcards," he said flabbergasted.

"Dude, we're profilers."

Reid looked at Morgan who was paying still attention to the road. "And we promised ourselves not to profile each other," Reid pointed out.

"Yeah, so why not tell me that you were seeing her when I was trying to get you to the go to the bars and pick up girls?"

"You meet Ashley. She is not into Star Trek, doesn't make any plans, she doesn't even drink coffee and swears like a sailor. We don't hang out in the same circles. If we didn't meet in the NA meetings, then you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. Without her bruises, she is beautiful and yet, she chooses to be with me."

"Reid, there is nothing is wrong with you."

"I honestly thought it wasn't going to last this long. I honestly thought with our jobs, leaving at a moment's notice and gone for any length of time. She knows that I will not talk about the cases with her. I thought that she would get mad at my job or when I would break our dates. I know she has been disappointed."

"Dude, calm down. I am glad to see you with someone. From my impression of her, she's sweet, beautiful, smart, and accepts you for who you are. What more could you ask? Where will go from here? Will it continue to last? I don't know. I am not a psychic. I'm just glad to see you happy." Morgan smiled as he turned onto her street where they could see her house from the distance.

"Whoa," Morgan said. From the distance, the two agents could see one side of her house blackened from the fire. They parked the black SUV in the driveway where they both climbed out of the vehicle.

Reid carried a few garbage bags in one hand and a flashlight. He dug out Ashley's keys from his pocket, wondering of why she needed to have some many keys on her Betty Boop key chain.

He was sorting out her house key when he heard Morgan, "Dude, is this Ashley's?" Reid joined Morgan who was still standing in the driveway, now standing in front of her bike. He noticed that were a few chips in her faring and there were a few scratches on her headlight. Her bedroom window next to her vehicles was blown open, causing the flying glass to chip her vehicle. Even though, the damage was minimal, he knew that she wasn't going to be happy about this. He is going have to stop and pick up some gummy bears for her on the way home.

"Yeah," he answered, not understanding Morgan's interest.

"Really, nice," he said, letting out a whistle. He shrugged his shoulders, not understanding of why Morgan was ogling over the bike. It was just a motorcycle. He knew since 1997, fatalities have increased an alarming 89 percent, from 2,116 in 1997 to 4,008 in 2004. But not matter of how many times he told her that, she would always asked him about the stats of riding in elevators and flying which he has done countless times. What was the difference. She wasn't going to give up riding her bike.

"I know she wants it back at the Ashburtons, but it is going to be put in storage along with the rest of her stuff." Morgan looked at him. "She can't drive it now and I am not licensed to drive it."

"I have the license, I could drive it for her," he offered.

"I will let her know, thanks." Reid unlocked the door and let Morgan go in first. They turned on their flashlights, realizing the power of her place was out.

They stood at the doorway where they were taken aback from the smell. He knew the sewer pipe blew up, but he didn't expect to smell open sewage. He tucked the garbage bags underneath his arms, and covered his mouth with his free hand. Morgan did the same, shining their lights.

It wasn't hard to find a hole on the wall where her stove was. In fact, most of her counter space was destroyed. Reid looked around seeing the glass of the sliding door was broken. He moved the light to see where her dinning table once stood was now thrown across the room and now lying on its side in her living room. Her couch was overturned. Her TV was smashed. Cause of the sewer line, sewage was everywhere in the house, already dried.

He then froze when he saw blood on the wall. The blood trail appeared to be smeared as if someone laid their hand in it and slid it down. He then saw used bandages on the floor which was covered in blood and clothing in shreds. That is where the paramedics must have worked on her before taking her to the hospital. They were not kidding when they said that she was very lucky to be alive with minor wounds. She could have easily broke her neck and be paralyzed or worse.

"Excuse me," he said before running outside. He ran out the front yard where he bent down and threw up.

He coughed up the last of his vomit, "Kid," he heard Morgan. "Are you alright?" He nodded, still bend down.

"Sorry." He slowly straightened himself up. "I didn't expect it to be that bad." Morgan nodded yes. Reid realized that Hotch was right, he wasn't good in this. How can he be objective after seeing this?

"Are you going to be ok with this," he heard Morgan asking. "Cause I can pick up her stuff while you wait outside."

He shook his head no. "I'm fine. Let's go."