I know, this isn't a new MOD chapter. This is actually a story I've been working on for a little while now. Originally it was going to just be posted as one whole chapter, but decided it would be better to split it into two. Since it's my first in the Criminal Minds fandom, I hope it has turned out okay!

Thanks so much to blueandie for beta-reading this story for me!

I might do another story in this fandom, haven't decided yet.

Enjoy and please let me know what you think!

Aaron Hotchner stands in the middle of the room, reading through the lab report in his hand for what seems to be the third time, a frown marring his face. The results in front of him don't make much sense to him, but clearly the victim was in the middle of some type of ritual. The type of ritual though, Hotch isn't sure.

The crime scene unit had already went through and collected the evidence by the time Hotch arrived, among the items being a small handful of different herbs that he doesn't recognize. He had glanced at them briefly before beginning to look through the report and assorted crime scene photos. The dimly lit room surrounded by candles, the eerie glow coming through the window above the altar and showing the body placed kneeling in front of the altar, hands clutched around a pouch. The following photo shows the pouch opened, the herbs peeking through the edges. It becomes increasingly clear to Hotch that the herbs hold significance in the ritual, but the meaning behind it is lost on him.

Sighing faintly, he turns back to a half finished text to Rossi. Hotch is hoping his colleague will have an idea of what these herbs could be used for. He has already sent the information to Garcia, but she hasn't had any luck in finding the ritual yet. It could be a key part of the case, so having more than one brain thinking it over is beneficial. Glancing at the paper one last time, Hotch adds the last few herbs to the list in the message.

Found these herbs in a little pouch, victim was sitting at an altar with it in his hand: Sage, Lavender, Marjoram, Garnet gemstone, and Rose Quartz. Sandalwood and Frankincense were burning in an incense holder. Recognize any of these? Already sent to Garcia.

He hits the send button, knowing Rossi will reply as soon as he can. Calling would have been much quicker, but Hotch prefers fewer distractions while in the middle of a crime scene. He can remain aware of his surroundings better when not trying to listen to someone over the phone. By the time Hotch is back at the station and in the room they're set up in, Rossi has already replied, even sent more than a single message. He sits down in an empty chair, Prentiss and Morgan going over the town's map nearby.

"What..." Hotch blankly stares at the messages, not expecting how long it is, nor the amount of detail in the explanation. Checking the number he sent it to, Hotch berates himself internally. Rossi had gotten a new number recently and Hotch has yet to save it into his phone. In his rush to type out the number from memory, he'd accidentally hit the three instead of four at the end, not bothering to double check before hitting the send button. Curious though, he reads over the stranger's reply, eyebrows rising to his hairline.

"Hotch? What is it?" Prentiss asks, noticing the older Agent's expression.

Morgan turns from the map as well, frowning in confusion. "Did something happen?" he asks, ready to head out the door at a moment's notice. Hotch gives a negative though, and Morgan's shoulders relax slightly.

"I sent a message meant for Rossi to someone else accidentally, but they appear to know a lot about herbs and rituals."

"Is that a bad thing?" Prentiss questions, sitting across from him.

"I don't know," Hotch slides his phone to her, letting her read the messages, Morgan glancing over her shoulder.

I am pretty sure you've got the wrong person, since I don't know anyone named Garcia. The question seems important though, so what's the harm in answering it? Sage, or Salvia officinalis by its scientific name, is a perennial, evergreen sub-shrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has naturalized in many places throughout the world. In some rituals it's used for cleansing, purification, alleviating grief as well as sorrow.

Lavender, or Lavandula angustifolia, is a perennial shrub or shrub-like plant. Their Leaf shape is diverse across the genus. They are simple in some commonly cultivated species; in other species they are pinnately toothed, or pinnate, sometimes multiple pinnate and dissected. In most species the leaves are covered in fine hairs or indumentum, which normally contain the essential oils. Flowers are held on spikes rising above the foliage, the spikes being branched in some species. The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish. They have a lot of uses, such as promoting sleep and battling depression.

Marjoram, or Origanum majorana, is a somewhat cold-sensitive perennial herb or under-shrub with sweet pine and citrus flavors. Their leaves are smooth and simple, petiolated, ovate to oblong- ovate with numerous tiny hairs. Its use in rituals includes easing grief and restoring happiness.

Garnet gemstones are a silicate crystal in hues of red, burgundy and green found throughout the world. These gemstones are used to balance energy, and raise emotions to a higher vibration. They also attract happiness and help with purification, including aligning the spiritual and physical self.

Rose quartz are pink crystalline masses found in India, Madagascar, and Brazil. It aids in the processing of grief and anger, eases pain through detoxification. Can also be used to protect against nightmares.

As for Sandalwood, it promotes relaxation, heightens spiritual energy and invokes passed souls. When burned as incense with Frankincense it raises energetic vibrations and makes it easier to connect with spirit guides or enlightened spirits.

This specific ritual is possibly connected to the Wiccan religion. Wicca is typically duo theistic, worshiping a Goddess and God, but also ranges from polytheism, pantheism or monism. Your victim was grieving at the time of his or her death, doing a ritual to try and help ease the pain of losing someone.

"Wow," Prentiss lets out a small whistle, Morgan nodding in agreement. She is about to say something else when the phone in her hands starts to ring. Quickly answering and putting Garcia on speaker, Prentiss places the phone between the three of them.

"So, I looked up all those plants and it seems they are connected to some sort of Wiccan ritual for grieving. I would explain all the extra details but there's so much of it, it'd take forever. Aside from that, I can say that Wicca is a nature-based religion that typically follows a Goddess and God, but some of them follow a lot more than just two." Garcia mutters, wonder over the Wiccan ritual coating her voice as she talks.

"Well whaddya know, mystery dude was right," Morgan chuckles, shaking his head slightly in surprise.

"Mystery dude? What mystery dude?" Garcia perks up, grin easily heard through the phone, as though she could taste something interesting happening.

"Hotch texted the wrong number earlier and the person on the other side sent back 7 detailed messages answering what those herbs were," Prentiss answers, grinning. Hotch tugs his phone back into his possession, sighing in the process.

Garcia speaks up again, excitement over the mystery guy still at the forefront of her mind. "I can totally look for the-" Her voice is cut off as Hotch switches from speaker mode, pressing the phone to his ear.

"Thanks Garcia, but I'd rather you didn't," Hotch spoke easily, hanging up as Garcia grumbled about missing out on all the fun.

He turned back to the room with a raised eyebrow, signalling the end of the discussion and a return to work. "Have you found anything else regarding this case?" Both agents shook their heads before heading out of the room. Morgan moves a bit slower than Prentiss, catching Hotch as he types out a reply to the stranger.

"Are you sure that's a good idea Hotch? You don't know who this person is," Morgan questions, pausing in his steps.

"It's fine Morgan, I doubt we will talk again after this anyway." He replies.

"Actually I think it's a good idea, they could be useful." Prentiss says while glancing over her shoulder, taping a picture to the board.

Hotch glances at the picture. "Is that our most recent victim?"

"Yeah, they found her two hours ago. The only connection between the victims that we've been able to find so far is that they are religious. All of them had either been in the middle of a ritual or prayer, or just finished."

"So we've got a ritualistic unsub?" Morgan questioned.

"Not necessarily," Hotch states.

"What do you mean?" Prentiss turns her full attention to the other two men.

"While the victims are just finishing or in the middle of a prayer, this doesn't really mean the unsub is killing as a ritual itself," Hotch replies as Rossi enters the room.

As he sits, Rossi asks, "Have you found anything else?"

"Well, we might have something. Prentiss could you go find J.J. and have her join us? It will be quicker to explain once." Prentiss nods, leaving to locate their liaison. It only takes a couple minutes, and they walk back into the room as Garcia answers her phone.

"Hello my lovelies, what can I do for you?" Garcia questions, a teasing lilt to her voice.

"I wished to get everyone's opinion before continuing anything. I had meant to text Rossi earlier today about the items found in the pouch early this morning and accidentally got the wrong number. Normally I wouldn't say anything but the person who got the message replied back soon after, and their response was completely accurate. Garcia has confirmed it. I want to make sure everyone knows about this before I say anything else to the other person," Hotch finishes, looking at his team members. Morgan is the only one with a slight frown, Prentiss and J.J. both smiling while Rossi looks amused.

"I think you should keep talking to this mystery person," Garcia hums. "In the meantime this girl's gotta go." The phone gives a small click, Garcia hanging up.

"Thank you for letting us know, Hotch. You should do what you wish to. Just be careful," J.J. says before heading out of the room. Prentiss follows with a small nod to Hotch.

"I don't know man, still think it's risky but it's up to you." Morgan shrugs, following the girls out.

"Don't look at me, Morgan is right - it's up to you." Rossi grins, watching as Hotch sighs and looks down at the message he had typed out earlier, hitting send.

Thank you for your response, it helped a lot. You seem to know quite a bit about this. We think it might be a ritualistic murder, what do you think?

Hotch doesn't get a reply until he is about to go to sleep later that night.

It doesn't necessarily have to be ritualistic. More likely it's either visionary or mission oriented.

The next morning Hotch, using that train of thought, takes his team through everything they know about the unsub so far. Within a few hours they had gathered all the information necessary to move forward.

"We're ready to give the profile," Hotch says to the lead detective on the case, who nods and begins gathering those in the station. It doesn't take long after that to track down the unsub, successfully getting them into custody: a 37-year-old woman who had a psychotic break after the brutal death of her husband and two kids in a house fire while she wasn't home. She began hallucinating spiritual people as the Devil - with horns, tail, and red eyes. Thinking it would bring her family back, she began killing them. However, when it failed to work, she killed again, beginning a ruthless cycle.

At the end of the day though, the team was just glad it was over and all were eager to be back home, in their own beds.

Spencer Reid had just entered the police station, heading for a nearby office occupied by one person, when his phone went off with a message. The sound made him jump slightly; hardly anyone texted him, most of the people he talks to prefer calling. Reid stops a few steps from his destination, opening the text from an unknown number. The contents make him frown slightly, worrying his lip in confusion, unsure who 'Garcia' is or why he got the message in the first place.

"What's wrong Reid?" Robertson asks, having noticed the young male standing outside his office but not coming in. Spencer's head jerks up, not expecting the question.

"Hi, Robertson. Just, I got a message from someone asking about different herbs but the number isn't one I recognize." Spencer looks back down at his phone, turning it around for the older male to read.

"You should reply. I'm sure that brain of yours already knows the answer the person is looking for." Eli smirks, green eyes full of amusement as he hands the phone back over. "When you're done, meet me in the big room," he calls over his shoulder. Spencer gives an absent nod in agreement, fingers already dancing across the keyboard. He stands there for almost five minutes by the time he's sent the last of a long string of messages - his phone has a limit on message length, one Spencer is currently miffed about. Stuffing the phone away, he heads to the big room where a few others are already waiting.

The room is aptly named. It's a large area in the far back of the building, surrounded by two walls of windows on each side and a brick wall at the back. Unsurprisingly, it was organized in a rather disorderly fashion, just as their forensic officer likes it. The man spent most of his time in the big room going over evidence and lab reports, with his lab situated in the room next to this one, smaller with more equipment.

"Hey Spencer, where'd you go? Usually you are the first one here," Kyle Ramone, the aforementioned forensic officer, said with his quiet voice.

"I was just responding to someone's questions about herbs," Reid smiled as he replied, taking a seat at the small table covered with a map and other bits of paper. "What do we have today?"

"Well, we have two bodies now and it doesn't seem the suspect is slowing down," Olivia stated, pointing at a manila folder. She is Robertson's partner, has been for 7 years. They settle into their seats, talking about the crime scenes so far and the locations.

An hour and a half later Spencer jumps slightly at the sudden tinkling of his phone, signifying a text message. Nervous fingers pulled it from his pocket, opening the message app to read what was said. The less-than-freaked response calms Spencer's nerves, and he contemplates the question, previous task temporarily abandoned.

Their conversation continues sporadically throughout the day, both busy with working, though they don't talk about a whole lot - mostly Reid telling the stranger about how and why butterflies' wings are colored the way they are, that birds' feathers have similarities to butterfly wings. When Spencer gets a message saying the mystery person solved the case, he realizes just how much he's already put into the conversations they had. It brings a knot to Spencer's stomach as one thought flows through his mind: is this the end of our conversation?

Ramone, noticing the slump in Reid's shoulders, worries his lips before standing to ask the young genius if he wants to go to the bookstore tomorrow before coming in to the station. Spencer's response is a quick affirmative; he's been wanting to get a book or five. Something to occupy himself when there's nothing else to do. Playing chess games against yourself can be entertaining for only so long, after all.

Spencer goes to bed that night with confusion and disappointment gnawing at him and invading his dreams.

After solving the case he was consulting for the next day, Spencer heads over to Ethan's house - his longest, and probably only, friend. Parking his old car into the driveway he walks towards the small tan house, smiling faintly at the flowers dotting the border around it. Ethan's fiance had planted them the previous year, declaring the yard to be 'just begging to be given more of life's color.' Ethan hadn't resisted, instead helped pick out what to plant. Since she was away visiting family for a little while, Ethan had decided it was time to have a pizza/game night. Or rather, as Spencer calls it - pizza/Ethan-wins-at-everything night. He doesn't hesitate to walk into the home, Ethan would already know he'd arrived.

"Hey Spence, are you ready to lose?" Ethan grins at him as he enters the front room before turning on the PlayStation and clicking on Mario Kart to start it.

"I am going to win today, Ethan," Spencer scoffs, grabbing the other controller and pressing Start.

The night proceeds like normal, for the most part, only interrupted by the arrival of Papa Johns and then by Reid's phone beeping. Reid, for once, had actually been winning their game, pizza long gone, when he received a text message. The sudden notification sound startles him so badly that Ethan ended up back in the lead, Spencer being too focused on getting his phone out to pay attention to the end of the game. His thoughts immediately turn to the same person who'd sent the earlier text since the only other person who doesn't usually call is sitting next to him, currently staring at Reid in confusion.

"Someone sent you a text message? Feeling so out of the loop right now Spence!" Ethan pouted, even as Spencer finally opened the notification, holding his breath at seeing the unknown number, one he had already memorized.

Hi, I hope it's okay that I message you again. Even though I don't have any questions to ask at the moment.

Spencer began typing a response, easily agreeing to their continued conversations even without the questions to start one.

"Spencer," Ethan drew out his name, poking Reid in his shoulder.

"Sorry, what?" Spencer asked, blinking from his response.

"Did you get a boyfriend without telling me?"

"Actually..." Spencer began, trailing off at another message arriving.

"Hey, don't leave me wondering!" Ethan groaned.

"No, besides I don't actually know who this person is aside from their occupation." Spencer said, once more hitting the send button.

Yeah it's fine, I'm usually not too busy.

The quick response has Spencer smiling faintly as he reads it.

Good. I wouldn't normally talk to a complete stranger, since you could likely be a criminal.

Spencer replies, just as quickly as the other person.

Actually the likelihood of me being a criminal is slim, based on my childhood and mentality. Even if I were a criminal, you would have a lot of difficulty trying to catch me.

"That's reckless, Spencer! Do you know the chances of him deciding to stalk you, even kill you?! Wait - don't answer that."

"Well, 1 in every 6 women and 1 out of every 19 men are stalked in their lifetime, just in the U.S."

" - Spence."

"Most victims of stalking actually know their stalker, typically a former or current intimate partner."

" - Spencer."

"Plus those who are of the age 18 to 24 are at a higher risk of being victimized."

"Eugh, that freaking sucks, I didn't need to know the statistics." Ethan scrunches his nose, pushing away the bag of chips he had just been eating.

"You asked, Ethan," Spencer grins, unapologetic. Ethan just huffs in acceptance.

"So, tell me about this person you're talking to. How did it even happen? I thought these things were restricted to movies and books. Oh, what if you two fall in love!? The perfect story!" Ethan let out a loud laugh, head thrown back. Spencer sighs, resigned to his friends romantic side.

"It started yesterday afternoon. They texted the wrong number, asking questions for a case they had been working on. I helped, replied despite the risks. I'm rather glad I did though. It's entertaining talking to them. They are stoic, more than likely male, but have a hidden sense of humor that shows every once in a while. They care about their teammates, like family." Spencer sighs, fiddling with the phone in his hands.

"Sounds like you know a lot for only talking for a day." Ethan's voice is filled with concern, worried but almost glad Spencer has found someone to talk to aside from himself and Reid's work friends.

"It's in the way he texts." Spencer shrugs, getting another message.

Oh? It's not that easy to evade my team and I :).

Spencer smiles, quickly replying, Ethan's words distantly registering. "Just be careful Spence, anything could happen regardless of statistics and other facts."

He knows Ethan may be right, but in that moment, Spencer couldn't care less.