Working this case probably wasn't one of the smartest things that Spencer had ever done. He showed up with Aaron just shy of being late thanks to a quick pit stop for more coffee, and as he sank down into the chair in the round table room, he had to fight not to sigh loudly in relief. His body was already exhausted from what little he'd put it through so far. Really, he could've happily gone back to sleep for another day. It would've done wonders for his body. But, a case was a case, and he had a job to do. He'd just have to be a little careful this time around.

Everyone gave him strange looks as he came in, but only Ashley spoke up over it. "You feeling okay, Reid?"

"Yeah, fine." He tried for casual and hoped that it didn't fail as badly as he thought it had. "Why?"

She gave him a curious look, eyes narrowing just the slightest bit as they ran over him. "I just haven't seen you late since I started here."

"Have we started the briefing yet?" Spencer asked.

Penelope was coming in then and she answered him as she slipped down into the chair nearby. "Just about to, boy wonder."

Clearing his throat, Spencer sat back a little and cradled his cup in his hands, resting it on his knee in an effort to try and hide the slight tremor still there. Sadly, he had a bit of experience at how to hide shaking hands and other things. His stint with Dilaudid had helped him hone those skills. "Then I'm not late."

That worked to shut Ashley up a little. Later, Spencer might feel a bit bad for getting snippy with her. Right then he was just too tired and he was already battling an annoyingly painful headache—his body's way of letting him know that he was pushing it.

"Oh. Yeah. Attention, intrepid BAU adventurers." Penelope said, drawing all their attention towards her. "The land of Bermuda shorts, white leisure suits, and sansabelt slacks requests your presence."

It was kind of amusing to hear three different voices answer her at almost the same time. "Vegas?" Dave asked, while Derek said "Arizona" and Emily added in "Palm Springs."

A hint of a smile ghosted over Aaron's lips before he wiped it away and gave them all a warning look that silenced them. "Please."

Huffing softly, Penelope shook her head. "I was going to say Miami, but point well made about the dizzying number of locales with unfortunate fashion tendencies."

Playfulness aside, the group turned their attention to the case being presented to them. Three men were dead, all found with shells in their eyes and mouths, and all found within a mile of each other in a mostly Latino neighborhood in Miami. One of them had been found with a decapitated cat. All of it screamed ritual and none of it screamed anything good. Spencer sat up, paying just a little more attention. Was this a case, or was it a case? He watched carefully as Penelope walked them through the victims. "Eduardo Guzman, homeless. He was shot to death seven days ago. Yanira Espinal, prostitute, bludgeoned to death. And then Victor Cabrera, he was an unemployed janitor. He was slashed with a machete yesterday, as was his cat."

"You know, considering the homeless man lived in that alley, all of the victims essentially were killed in their homes." Dave pointed out.

Derek nodded his head. "This took some time."

"In the open." Aaron said.

There was something vaguely familiar about some of this. The part of him that was Spencer seemed to recognize it more than the rest of him. Not a big surprise, really. One place that angels had always held a bit of a blind spot was the details of other religions. Jophiel had been unique in his willingness to learn about the pagan side of things through his brother, Gabriel. Spencer Reid, however, had been fascinated by them. "You know," he said slowly, digging through his memories to try and find what he needed. "Cowrie shells and ritual offerings are common to a number of Afro-Caribbean religions."

"But the upside-down cross looks like Satanism." Emily said, pointing to one of the photos.

More photos were moved around. Derek shifted through them, glancing from one to the next. "The first two victims had fingers missing, but on this one, he took both hands."

"All of this could have been religious?" Ashley asked. She sounded, surprised. Like that hadn't quite occurred to her. Or, more like she had a hard time believing it. Whatever the next person said to answer that, he missed. All of his attention was back on the case.

Spencer stared at it all and tried to make sense of it. He only halfway heard as Aaron dismissed them all from the briefing and told them to get ready to go. It wasn't until Derek caught his arm that he really noticed the room starting to empty. Looking up, he found his friend's eyes full of concern. "Reid…" There was a moment of hesitation, a space in which he tried to figure out how to word what he wanted in such a public place. He finally settled on, "You don't look too great. Is everything all right?"

"I'll be fine." Spencer smiled and reached up to lightly pat Derek's arm. "When we get a chance, I promise, I'll explain later. Or, if I can't, I'll give Hotch permission to explain for me. But I'm okay. Just, tired."

"You sure? Cause Prentiss and I were a bit worried on Friday…"

It took just a second for Spencer's exhausted brain to connect why Friday would've worried them. Then it hit and he was laughing before he could stop himself. They were worried about him leaving with 'Gabby'? He had to remind himself that they had absolutely no idea who 'she' was. Spencer cast a quick look around the room and out of it to make sure that no one was nearby. Then, curling the hand that he'd been using to pat Derek's arm before, he braced just enough to lean in a little more. "Morgan, I promise you, it was fine. Gabby was my brother Gabriel in disguise, and he is the only other angel in existence I can assure you without a single doubt means me absolutely no harm."

The stunned look on Derek's face was enough to almost make him laugh again. Valiantly, he held it in. "Gabriel? As in, Gabriel the Messenger, the archangel?"

Spencer's lips curved into a soft, amused smile. "He always gets the awed reactions."

Footsteps broke into their conversation and the two looked over to see Aaron appear in the doorway. "Guys, we need to get going."

"Sorry, Hotch." Spencer and Derek chimed in at almost the same time.

The first step that Spencer took, he stumbled just slightly and mentally cursed the exhaustion that still filled his body. He was dragging as they made their way out into the bullpen. They were halfway across when Emily joined them, coming over from her desk, and Spencer was surprised to see that she held his go-bag as well. He always kept one underneath his desk just in case. They all did. She brought it over and he took it from her with a soft "Thank you."

"No problem." She said, pressing in against his side and slipping an arm around his waist in what looked to be a friendly gesture. It was a bit more than that, though. Her embrace had him responding by sliding an arm around her shoulders. To everyone else, they just looked as if they were walking together. No one could tell that Emily was using herself as a sort of brace to help prop Spencer up. She'd seen how tired he was and was helping him without making it obvious. For about the millionth time, Spencer thought to himself how blessed he was to have these amazing people in his life.

The ride out to Miami was spent discussing their case, as always. For Spencer, it was a bit of a throwback to 'old times'. To life before his grace had been returned. He felt tired, which had happened often when they'd worked back to back cases, and very, very human. This case was going to rely more on his profiling skills than any of his angelic skills. Some of them he could still use, of course. But it was better to let his grace simply recover on its own. What he'd done had been extensive. The flight to hell alone would've been enough to exhaust him for a few days. Healing a soul, even just a little bit, on top of all that? That definitely hadn't helped. Soul healing was a delicate process that required precision and control to make sure that his grace didn't overwhelm and end up hurting the soul even more.

Of call cases to be low on what Derek referred to as his 'mojo', it just had to be a religious one, though. A religious one that was based on Afro-Caribbean syncretic religions which had mostly come around during Spencer's human lifetimes. What knowledge Spencer had of them, he'd earned as Spencer Reid, not as Jophiel.

Once they arrived in Miami, everyone went off to their respective places, and after a brief silent communication between Aaron and Spencer, the recovering archangel ending up going with Derek down to Allapattah to visit a local community center their last victim used to frequent. The exhaustion, Spencer was able to hold at bay, but he had to stop at a random street vendor and quickly purchase a pair of sunglasses to help block out the light that was making his head pound. It was worth dealing with Derek's renewed worried looks just to get a bit of relief.

It wasn't that difficult to make it through the meeting at the community center. Frustrating, yes. Difficult, no. There was something telling him that things would've been a whole lot easier if he wasn't so damn human right now. Then he chided himself for complaining about it. He'd done his job for years and years without the aid of his grace. Working one more case without it shouldn't be too hard. If he just pushed his grace down low, lived as human as possible for this case, he'd heal much faster. Sleep and a good meal wouldn't hurt, either.

He got those both not long after they went back to the station. With nothing more to do that night, the team went to the motel to catch some sleep. Spencer could see the others wanting to talk to him, but he could also see Ashley watching curiously, and he could feel his body getting heavier. There was one easy way around all this that would still explain to the others what was going on. Maybe it was cheating a bit, but, hell, who could blame him? Before he went off to his room, he stopped Aaron in the hallway and lightly touched his arm. When the man turned to him, Spencer cast a quick look over to the others and then back to Aaron. Lowly, he murmured "Would you explain things to them, please?" He saw Aaron's surprise. "They've got a right to know, Hotch, and I'd planned on explaining it myself tonight because I can tell they're worrying about just how human I seem to be right now. I just," A soft sigh slid from him. "I'm exhausted."

"I'll handle it." Aaron reassured him immediately. That look was back in his eyes, that fatherly one, and there was a piece of Spencer that warmed a little at the open affection. Aaron clapped a hand on Spencer's shoulder and gave a light squeeze. "Eat something first, Reid. You need the fuel. I'll make sure to come wake you up in the enough time in the morning so don't worry about an alarm."

Half of that advice was at least something Spencer could follow. He was asleep before his head fully hit the pillow and he slept straight through until his boss woke him to head out the next morning.

One look at Derek's face was all it took for him to see that Aaron had done what he'd asked and told the others. How he'd managed to do it without alerting Ashley was anyone's guess. Not that it really mattered. What mattered was the stunned way that Derek was looking at Spencer as they drove to go see the religious expert that Penelope had dug up for them. Spencer smothered a yawn and slid down a little more in the passenger's seat while curling his hands more firmly around the coffee that his best friend had brought him. "I'm fine, Morgan." He said it without looking up, not needing to look up to know that he was still being watched.

"Are you sure?" Derek asked plainly. "I mean, Reid, after what Hotch told us—shit, kid."

Humor quirked up Spencer's lips. "Not a kid."

He snuck a look over and caught the tail end of the glare that his friend sent his way. Then Derek's eyes were back on the road. "You did an amazing thing, kid." He stressed that last word, making the both of them smile a little, before he turned serious again. "No one would've blamed you for sitting a case out and recovering."

"I need to work." Spencer said simply. It was the easiest truth. Work was much better than just lying around and thinking about what he'd seen. About what he'd gone through. Not that it was far from his mind. Not even this case could completely chase away those thoughts. They stayed in Spencer's mind, had replayed last night in his dreams. And, because this was Derek, some of those thoughts came out of his mouth now. "He didn't used to be like that. Lucifer." He added that last part on when he saw Derek's confusion. "He didn't used to be that way. Once, he was the most beautiful. There was a reason he was known as the Morningstar. You caught a glimpse of my grace when it came back to me, that bright light. Mine has nothing on the light of the Morningstar's grace when he once walked Heaven. To see him like that, down there…to see what he's turned into…"

"I'm so sorry, Reid."

Those four words didn't really make anything better. But somehow, they eased just a tiny it of tension inside of Spencer. "Thanks."

There was something off with their religious expert. With the headache pulsing under his skin and his grace still pushed down, Spencer couldn't quite place what it was, but something about him was off. Not quite right.

He made a note to bring it up with the others later.

Midway through giving the profile, Derek got a call from Penelope letting them know that their victims had all frequented the soup kitchen that Derek and Spencer had gone to yesterday. That in mind, the two set out together. Spencer had expected to just go to the community center and speak with a few people.

He hadn't expected this.

The closer they got, the more Spencer could feel the power thrumming along his skin. Not his power, not angelic power. No—godly power. He didn't need the chanting to know that the people inside were either summoning their god, or paying homage to him, or something along those lines. And their god was listening. Not doing anything, not harming them, not helping, just listening. It had Spencer calling on all the tricks that Gabriel had ever taught him to pull down and mask his already strained grace. By the time they walked through the doors, he was well hidden, at least to supernatural eyes. What he hadn't counted on was much more human eyes. Human eyes that had been blessed by their god and which carried the natural talent to see more.

Spencer dutifully backed his partner when Derek stepped towards the ceremony that this group of people were involved in. A small part of him wanted to tell the man to stop, to give them a moment. His own religion or not, it felt wrong to interrupt any such religious ceremony, most especially with the deity in question watching on. But as soon as the dark skinned man at the center stopped and Derek started to speak, Spencer felt the deity's presence vanish.

"We're not here to cause any trouble." Derek was saying firmly. "But, sir, please put that knife down."

The man immediately let go of his knife. It felt to the ground with a low clatter. All around, the others watched on as the man—Julio, Spencer picked up—moved without hesitation or fear to come stand by Derek. "This is a House of God. You have no right to be here."

"We just would like to ask you some questions. We'd appreciate it if you came with us voluntarily." Derek said. "We're not here to create a spectacle."

Julio looked at Derek for a long second and then looked over his shoulder, right to Spencer. They locked eyes and Spencer felt his grace quiver a little as he recognized just how clearly this man could see. Not enough to know exactly what he was, but enough to know something. "I will go with you." There was no doubt about who he meant there.

They took Julio down to the police station and set him up in an interview room. There, they let him sit for a few minutes while they spoke with Penelope, gathering as much information about the man as possible. "Okay," She told them, her voice ringing out over the speakerphone. "Your bad boy grew up in foster care. He did fifteen years in Apalachee Correctional for attempting to murder a police officer. He was also a member of a violent street gang known as Los Machetes."

"Subtle." Aaron said lowly.

"Damn." The detective with them sighed. When they turned his way, he made a frustrated sound before explaining. "They like to cut off the hands and sometime the heads of their victims."

"Can you get us some crime scene photos to look at?" Aaron asked.

The detective nodded. "I'll get someone on it."

Aaron nodded and turned back to the phone as the detective went to get them the photos. "Anything else, Garcia?"

"I can tell you that Julio did his time without incident. He was released in 2003. He regularly visited his parole officer. There are no waves in these crime waters since he got out."

"All right, thanks, baby girl." Derek said.

"I shall await further instruction."

Derek ended the call and slipped the phone down into his pocket. Then he turned to look at the window that allowed them to see into the interview room. "This guy's been eyeballing the mirror since he got here. Let's see what he has to say."

Before Derek could step away, Spencer reached out and caught his arm, stopping him. "Wait, Morgan. I think…I think maybe I should go in first."

"What?" Derek's surprise was easy to hear in his voice.

"Do you remember at the community center, he said he would come with me?" Spencer asked. Julio hadn't had that he'd come with them. He'd made a point of looking right at Spencer to say it and he'd kept up his observation of the archangel as they'd made their way back here. Spencer didn't mention to his friends that he was pretty sure this guy could see something different about him, though. They wouldn't let him go in there if they knew. Of that he was sure. And right now, him going in was their best option.

"If they already have a rapport…" Dave said lowly.

There was a pause as Aaron looked at Spencer like he suspected something. In the end, he gave a small nod. "You want Morgan to come with you?"

Spencer shook his head. "No, I'm all right. Thanks."

When he went in to speak with Julio, he'd expected the whole interview to be unlike any other one he'd done. He'd expected, something. What he hadn't expected was to witness a true psychic vision. It wasn't a possession, though it almost appeared that way, and it wasn't a case of transpossession as the others thought. Transpossession is a form of religious hysteria in which a person wholeheartedly believes that they're being occupied by some form of deity. Spencer couldn't argue that the man had had a type of vision, not with Detective Manny right there, so he was forced to bite his tongue and try to work under the human constraints put on him.

Spencer did everything he could, playing his role, trying to keep his grace down as low as possible so that it wouldn't be noticed. He recited the words back to Julio and pretended that he didn't already know the translations to them.

"You have bad eggun on top of you that's spoiling your head." Julio told him. "Do a cleansing quickly."

That's a bit of an understatement. Spencer thought wryly. Then again, he dared anyone to travel through Hell, to the Cage, back out with two souls, and then work to heal them and somehow not have the need to cleanse themselves.

"Something's wrong." Julio said suddenly. "Can you feel it?"

As soon as his attention was brought to it, yes, he could. Not in the room, no…connected to Julio. There was something going on in connection to Julio.

"Someone's about to get hurt." Julio told him. His deep voice rang with authority.

The door to the interview room opened and Derek came in. The serious look on his face told Spencer that this wasn't good. "Your helper, the kid that took over your ritual when we brought you in here…"

"Elian." Julio interrupted.

Derek nodded. "My associates just found sale-weight heroin in his room. And an Nganga."

"Where is he?" Julio demanded.

"He's running."

Julio's hands slammed down on the table and he shot to his feet. This wasn't faked emotion. This was true, honest worry.

"Hey. Calm down." Derek snapped. He was braced, always ready for trouble, but Spencer could've told him that Julio wasn't going to be trouble for them.

"Please," Julio turned and begged them. "I gotta find him. He's got nobody but me."

"Do you think it's possible that Elian is our Palero?" Though he didn't believe it, Spencer still had to ask.

Still, he knew the answer even before Julio shook his head no. "No. No, he's a good kid."

"Then why did he run?" Derek asked.

"He must be using again. His mama and papa were junkies. I took him in, got him clean, taught him right from wrong. Please. I gotta find him before he gets hurt."

They couldn't deny the sincerity of his words. Derek and Spencer exchanged a brief look before Derek turned back to Julio. "The entire police force is out looking for him."

"He's of the streets." Julio reminded them. "He's gonna go so far under, he'll be gone for good. I'm your best chance to find him."

What other choice did they have? They had to let him help. They needed answers; answers they weren't getting anywhere else. And this man right here was their best choice. Again, Derek and Spencer shared a look, and this time Spencer gave a tiny nod, hoping his friend understood what he was saying. It was time to trust him. Time to see what Julio could do for them.

The night ended in a way that Spencer hadn't anticipated. It also ended in a way that he knew was later going to get him in quite a bit of trouble with his boss. Breaking away from the team and slipping out of the house on your own while the others were busy was never a good thing. Getting caught by the Unsub didn't exactly help matters. Still, in the end, it worked out. The Professor, the one that Spencer had felt was so off during their meeting, was now behind bars and his hopes of impressing his father with his work were pretty well dashed. Elian was recovering in a hospital from the drug overdose the Professor had forced on him, and Julio was with him nursing a concussion of his own. All in all, a well solved case, even if it wasn't their best done.

Any lecture he was going to get was delayed by the fact that he passed out on the couches almost the instant they got onto the jet and he slept the entire trip back. Anything that they had to say was just going to have to wait. Spencer needed sleep.

He barely woke when they arrived, and only just enough to notice that it was Aaron helping him up, Aaron bracing him as they made their way off the jet. His boss took him over to the waiting car and even helped tuck him down into the seat there like he was a child. Vaguely Spencer heard him speaking to the others as he shut the car door. "He's exhausted. I'll take him back to my place, let him get some sleep. Why don't you guys swing by in the morning and we'll have breakfast once Jack's off to school? I can set for us to get a late morning tomorrow with Strauss."

"I'll handle Strauss." Dave said. "You just take care of him. We'll see you in the morning, Aaron."

There was something wonderful in being able to trust in those with you. Spencer knew without a doubt that he could trust in the man currently driving them away from the airstrip. He could trust in Aaron with everything he had. That knowledge allowed him to let go and relax in ways he couldn't around many others.

Twenty minutes later, Spencer was back in Aaron's apartment. By his insistence, he was curling up on the couch, not back in his friend's bed. He wasn't going to take his bed from him again. The couch would work just fine.

He was asleep again before the blankets finished covering him.

The whole apartment was dark when Spencer woke once more. It didn't take him long to figure out why he woke. The blankets lying over him were moving and a warm body was slipping underneath them almost like a child trying to slip into their parent's bed. Spencer rolled his eyes without opening them and adjusted himself so that he was more pressed against the back of the couch. He lifted one arm under the blankets and that was all the invitation needed. Immediately he had his own furnace laying half on him, cuddled right up against his chest, and he smiled to himself as he wrapped arms and wings around his brother.

"You were hard to find." Gabriel murmured against his chest. "I've been looking. I had to do a bit of human research to find out where your friends all lived and then do a check that way."

Spencer huffed out a breath and nuzzled his face in against Gabriel's hair. "You're not the only one that knows how to hide."

"From me?"

"Mm." He pulled Gabriel in closer. "Never from you." With his grace, he reached out, letting go of the tight hold he'd had these past few days. He let it reach to Gabriel and brush over him in both a show of affection and a way to check on how well his brother was healing. It let him know that Gabriel was tired, though he was a bit more healed than Spencer. He'd obviously gotten more rest than Spencer had these past few days.

Gabriel sighed at the warm feeling of Spencer's grace. They would both heal faster like this, wrapped up in each other, sharing grace. They'd work to heal each other. "Your team knows about you?" Gabriel asked him softly.

Nodding, Spencer gave him a soft squeeze. "Stay," He murmured, voice already low and heavy with the sounds of sleep, slurring ever so slightly. "You can meet 'em. We're havin' breakfast in the mornin'."

"Pancakes?"

"Pancakes."

"Kay."

Content, Gabriel snuggled in just a bit more and then his body went soft and pliant, falling asleep with ease. Spencer smiled once more before he let himself join him.