They were on the way to the airport half an hour later. Morgan was driving the car, Hotch was next to him. Reid was sitting in the back glowering out the window and gnawing at an invisible hangnail on his middle finger. Rossi, Prentiss and JJ were travelling in the other car.

Morgan was at a loss for what to say to him. Reid was such a laid back person usually that he couldn't recall ever having argued with him before. The thought that Reid genuinely thought he might want him fired from the BAU was incredibly hurtful and bewildering to say the least.

They stopped at Young's house. He'd obviously been watching for them since Morgan hadn't even parked the car yet and he was already hurrying out the door, suitcase in hand. He practically skipped to the side of the car and knocked on Hotch's window. He wound it down.

Young saluted him cheerfully. "Reporting for duty Agent Hotchner!"

"Glad you could make it at such short notice." Hotch said solemnly.

"Are you kidding?" he slapped his hands onto the car window frame and leaned inside, oblivious to Hotch's obvious discomfort. "This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me! A free skiing holiday and I get to help you guys catch a serial killer! And this resort sounds awesome! I looked it up and it has hot tubs and a pool and a freaking golf course! I don't even like golf but OH MY GOD."

"If you don't mind Dr Young, we need to get going before the weather really hits."

"Oh right! Sorry." He put his suitcase in the trunk, opened the door and climbed into the back seat. "Oh…heey." he said, wincing. "Didn't see you there Twenty-eight."

Reid pretended not to hear him. He rested his forehead against the window and closed his eyes, looking like he wished he could make himself disappear, like the ghost of his breath on the cold window melted away between his exhalations.

Morgan switched on the windscreen wipers and started driving. The sooner this painfully awkward drive was over the better.

...

They met up with the others on the plane twenty minutes later.

"Uh, Hotch, who's this?" asked JJ.

Prentiss glanced up from her file and looked amusingly horrified as she recognised the man who had splashed coffee at her favourite sweater, then tried to hit on her all within a minute of meeting her.

"Why the hell is he here?" she complained. Young blew her a kiss and waved mock-flirtatiously.

"This is Dr Young. He's here as a consultant."

"A consultant on what?" JJ asked.

"Being an ass?" Prentiss suggested under her breath.

"Everything." Hotch said ambiguously, and sat down with a book.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Prentiss asked, sceptically. "Like he's some kind of guru?"

"It means he's here because I say so, and you'd do well not to question my judgement." Hotch said, giving her one of his most intimidating death stares.

Prentiss just said "Ugh," and went back to reading.

Young went and sat down, a healthy distance away from her. Reid went and sat at the back corner, making it clear that he wanted to be left alone. Morgan wanted to talk to him, but he knew Reid was struggling with something he didn't fully understand, and decided maybe it was best just to leave him to work through it on his own.

"What's the matter? You just gonna give up? What kind of a man are you?" Morgan teased, sitting down next to Young.

"A man who has learnt the valuable lesson in his lifetime, not to antagonise women who carry guns." Young pointed out.

"I can testify to that, my man." Came Rossi's voice from somewhere behind them.

"See?" Young said.

"Alright fair enough." Morgan laughed.

Young dug his ball out of his jacket pocket and started bouncing it off the partition wall.

"You seriously take that thing everywhere?" Morgan asked.

"Yup. It helps me think. I tried carrying a chinchilla around with me but they don't bounce so well." He grinned. "It's a shame though. They're a lot cuter."

"Are you serious?" Morgan laughed.

"Yup. Well. Kind of. I did have a chinchilla called Charlie when I was a kid, but I didn't try to bounce him. He died of natural causes when I was eleven. If natural causes can include an unfortunate incident with a lawnmower."

Morgan's mouth fell open.

"Oh my God! That's awf…oh you're shitting me again aren't you?"

"Yep." Young gave a shameless grin. "Oh wait…I'm meant to be building up a relationship of trust with you aren't I? Oops."

Morgan laughed.

"So what about you?" Young nudged him. "What did you do to get in the doghouse with young Dr Reid?"

"Wish I knew." Morgan said tiredly, leaning his head back into the seat. "This week has just been…ugh. I just want him to get better."

Young caught the ball and looked at him sort of funny.

"What?" Morgan asked.

"Nothing." He threw the ball again.

"No come on, what? You gonna psychoanalyse me for this entire trip?"

"Of course not. But I see things, and as a result I think things, you know? I can't really avoid it."

"So what are you thinking?"

"My thoughts are private until I choose to share them, just as yours are."

"Okay then." Morgan said, trying not to feel irritated. "So, anyway, I hear your appointment with him wasn't such a success?"

"I can't discuss that with you, you know that."

"I forgot. Sorry." Morgan said, annoyed with himself. Even when he decided to leave Reid alone he still couldn't stop interfering.

"That's okay."

"Hey guys," Rossi said, leaning over the back of their seats. "Front of the plane in five minutes. We have some new info Hotch wants to share with us."

...

They got to the meeting last, Morgan and Young. They were laughing about something. There was a surprisingly painful pang of some kind in Reid's chest at the sight of Morgan so happily talking to someone else, which puzzled and distressed him. He couldn't find any explanation for it. He guessed the sleepless nights were messing with his ability to organise his thoughts.

JJ, Rossi, Prentiss and Hotch sat around the window table. Reid sat across from them on the seat opposite the table, staring at his brown Converses. Morgan and Young stood behind JJ and Rossi's seats.

"The Maryland police force sent us some new information we need to discuss." Hotch began.

"The coroner just established that there was water in Josephine's lungs, but not her husband's. He was already dead when he hit the water." JJ said, despondently.

"You mean she drowned face to face with her husband's corpse?" Prentiss said. "That kind of twisted has to put him squarely in the sadist category, surely?"

"It's all about the women's fear. The men are nothing to him, disposable." Morgan said.

"There's more." Hotch said grimly.

"The coroner did a preliminary autopsy, and…there's no nice way to put this, but in the contents of the female victim's stomach he found…human cardiac muscle."

There was a stunned silence.

Morgan closed his eyes wearily. "Please tell me it wasn't…"

"…her husband's cardiac muscle." JJ said, looking nauseous.

"Somebody made this woman eat her husband's heart?" Young said, appalled.

"Either that or she got an unprecedentedly severe attack of the munchies while they were on their hiking excursion." Reid said sarcastically.

Young raised his eyebrows a little at the young man's open hostility.

"So what does this tell us about our unsub?" Hotch asked the group.

This time Young answered.

"He's jealous." He said with a smirk, glancing at Reid. Reid fidgeted in his seat and looked uncomfortable.

Hit the nail on the head there then. Young thought. Looks like these agents haven't quite been honest with me about their feelings for one another.

"I'm sorry?" Hotch asked, not following his train of thought.

"I'd say the message was pretty clear." Young looked away from Reid. "The woman you love eating your heart. Maybe that's what he feels happened to him in the past, and he's just getting his revenge. Or trying to warn others." Young's hand got restless so he started bouncing his ball on the floor again.

Hotch nodded in approval of his theory.

Now he's trying to replace me in my own team. Reid thought, despairingly. What had he done to suddenly make everyone dislike him so much? Or had they just put up with him out of pity for years and now they were sick of it? All those moments of comradeship, family, feeling part of something for once…were they all just in his head?

Young smiled at his victory and bounced his ball especially hard. Unfortunately and not at all on purpose it ricoched off the air-con vent in the ceiling and headed once again for poor Prentiss, landing in her cleavage and making her drop the contents of her file onto the floor.

"Oh! Are you kidding me? Will someone please tell him to stop bouncing that stupid ball around in a confined space?" she snapped tossing it away down the plane.

"Oh my God sorry!" he babbled, genuinely terrified for his life, while everyone else tried their best not to laugh. He practically dived onto the floor to help her pick up the sheets of paper.

"You've gotta admit Prentiss, it's kind of funny how you're always the one to get hit by airborne missiles." Morgan chuckled. "Seriously, it's like you have some sort of magnetic field which makes them hone in on you."

"Well that wouldn't keep happening if people would quit throwing stuff in my vicinity! Come on, we're all supposed to be professional adults here."

"Hey, there was nothing about having to be a professional adult in my contract!" Young said in mock-outrage.

"That is because you didn't have a contract." Hotch pointed out. "You merely accepted a free holiday."

"Oh right. So basically I'm your bitch until we catch this guy?"

"I'm afraid so." Hotch nodded.

"Hmph." Young pretended to sulk, and muttered, "At least I'm a bitch with a hot tub."

"I'm going to go get a coffee." Prentiss said, rolling her eyes at their immaturity. "I assume you all want one too."

Everyone nodded and said thanks.

"I'll help you carry them!" Young perked up.

"No…no you're alright. Morgan, with me please." Prentiss said quickly, looking alarmed.

Morgan winked at Young. "The lady knows what she wants." He clapped the disheartened counsellor on the back as he walked past.

"Hey." He said to Prentiss in the refreshments section of the plane as she put water into the machine. "You know he's sweet on you right? Like, sweeter than Reid's coffee."

"I'm not talking about this with you Morgan." She said, trying not to smile.

"Ohh so that means you got a little sugar goin' on for him too huh?" he grinned.

"No!" she protested. "No way. I've met guys like him before, who think girls find it cute if they go round pulling their pigtails like they're in second grade. They never grow up."

"He's not always like that. I think you make him nervous. Which is understandable since you've yelled at him every time you've seen him. I think you should go easy on him."

"You really think I should try dating him?" she laughed in disbelief.

"That's not for me to say" Morgan smiled. "But I think he's a good guy, I think he'll make you smile and I think you need to smile more."

She poured coffee into seven mugs and Morgan put milk and sugar into those who liked milk and sugar's mugs.

"He does have nice hair." She conceded, taking a sip of her drink.

They took the drinks through to the others on trays. Morgan handed Reid his coffee, as a peace offering. Reid did that thing where his mouth tried to smile a little but his eyes looked miserable, and took the drink from him. Morgan sat down next to him.

"Are we okay pretty boy?" he asked softly.

Reid looked relieved.

"Yeah." He said, and gave a stronger smile this time. Morgan returned it, though he was now even more at a loss for what the hell was going on inside the young genius's head.

"Hey, Hotch?" Young said. "I have an idea. If it's okay for me to say so, I think I know how we catch this guy."

"Sure, go ahead." Hotch nodded.

"Well he targets couples right? So why don't we provide our own?"

"You mean two of us go undercover?" Morgan said.

"Yeah. I mean you see it in movies all the time." Young shrugged.

"It's something we could certainly consider, but it's too risky until we know exactly how he targets the couples, otherwise we have no guarantee he'll choose our couple over another."

"Garcia may be able to help us there. If we find out more about the three couples he's already taken, that will tell us how to adapt our couple to suit his fantasy better than the other guests." Morgan said.

"Okay, it's worth a try." Hotch agreed.

Morgan called Garcia and put her on speakerphone.

"This is the queen of the digital realm speaking, and might I add she's not at all pleased that her Cocoa Muffin didn't stop to say goodbye to her before he left." She said grumpily.

"Cocoa Muffin?" Young raised an eyebrow.

"I'm eternally sorry my hot delicious cupcake," Morgan glared at him. "But we've got a real freaky one for you this time babygirl."

"Oh I know. JJ sent me the photos, and let's just say I will be having some very vivid nightmares tonight. Whose voice is that Honeysuckle?"

"Honeysuckle!?" Young burst out laughing. "I love this woman! Remind me why she's not coming with us again?"

"Garcia meet Dr Adam Young. He's consulting just for this case."

"Oh. Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine cupcake."

"When you two have finished flirting," Hotch cut in, taking the phone away from Morgan. "Garcia could you draw up a list of the guests currently staying at the hotel, eliminating children, groups and singles? We're looking for couples, romantically involved couples, especially those nearing the last night of their stay."

"Too easy my liege, give me something to get my heart pounding."

"You mean put Morgan back on the phone?" Hotch smirked.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him.

"Oh…my god." Said Morgan.

"Did he just make a joke? Did that actually happen?" Prentiss asked. "I wasn't sure whether I had some kind of complex partial seizure."

"What? It does happen sometimes." Hotch huffed. "Anyway, Garcia could you also run background checks on the victims?"

"Already did that earlier sir, sending them to your PDAs now."

"Thanks. This place is pretty isolated, especially in winter so chances are we're looking for somebody who works in or nearby the resort. Check skiing instructors, cleaners, concierges and security guards and see if any of them have a criminal record, and crosscheck with those who have suffered a break up recently. That's it for now."

"Okay sir I'll keep you posted. Over and out."

"Okay so the other two couples were Max and Judy Brook, and Sarah and Greg Foster. Both couples were married and in their mid-twenties." JJ said.

"All the women are long haired brunettes." Rossi pointed out. They all looked at Prentiss.

"I guess I'm it then." She said, smiling bravely. "The men are also dark haired and white. I guess that means you'll be joining me Hotch."

There was an awkward silence.

"Um, the males are in their twenties Prentiss." Hotch said carefully. "I'm flattered you think I could pass for that, but…I'm too old."

"Then who…?" She looked around the group. Young waved awkwardly.

"No. No! No way. No." she shook her head and looked horrified. "I am not sharing a room with this idiot! He'll have accidentally bludgeoned me to death with some flying object before the unsub gets near us."

"Hey!"

"No offence."

Hotch looked apologetic. "I'm sorry Prentiss. If we're going to take a proper shot at this you're going to have to try to at least appear to get along with him."

"And be madly in love with him." Morgan grinned, overjoyed at how the situation had played out.

She glared at him.

"This unsub is going to regret the day he was born when I get my hands on him." She swore.

"First things first, there were some more important connections between the victims." JJ said. "The couples were all on their honeymoon. The women all wore something red on the night they disappeared, the couples were all very wealthy with the women generally as the chief earners. The women were described by hotel staff as 'outgoing and flirtatious' while the men were quieter and more submissive."

"Perhaps that's his problem with them. Dominant women make him angry because he couldn't control the woman he wanted to keep." Rossi suggested.

"He sounds like a classic Anger Retaliation rapist type. But he'll almost definitely have been reported for domestic abuse." Prentiss said.

"The final connection is that they were all staying in the luxury oak cabins around the property, not the main hotel." JJ said.

"That's good." Hotch said. "That narrows his victim pool considerably."

"I think we have enough to go on to give it a try." Rossi said. Hotch nodded.

"Kill me now." Prentiss groaned melodramatically.

...

Hello :) no song for this chapter really. Umm...hope you're all enjoying. Sorry about the Prentiss/Young if anyone reading is one of those slash puritans who are like BLAH HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS. xD I actually did not anticipate that pairing at all. Damn you Young and your unpredictable plot-stealing ways. You ever get that happening in your stories? Where a minor character is just like GIVE ME ATTENTION PLEASE AUTHOR. And while we're at it who the hell decided we were going skiing? WHAT IS HAPPENING TO MY STORY? xD

Ah well. It'll resolve itself somehow.