Author's Note: This story takes place during Season Nine between the episodes Fatal and Angels. This story popped into my head two days ago and I decided to get it out before I forgot it lol...also I am so starved for Morgan/Reid friendship on the show...they do not really focus on this relationship anymore and I have my theories as to why but anyhow...

I do not own Criminal Minds or it;s main characters, I just really love the show! Any original characters or story plots do belong to me.

Enjoy!

Woodbridge, Virginia

12:57 AM

It was a dark and stormy night and State Trooper Jason Peacock was doing his usual nightly patrol along Blackburn Road which ran through Neabsco Creek. The large wooded area was secluded and attracted a large array of illegal hunters, dumpers and kids messing around.

Despite the nuisances of patrolling such an area, Jason, being one of the youngest troopers on the squad, at the age of twenty-three, did not mind being assigned the route no other trooper wanted because the seclusion allowed the youngster to keep his two secrets...his love of rap music and that for the past 6 months, an affair with his pregnant fiance's best friend! Jason knew that either secret had the potential to bring equal part scandal to the small rural town, where the most exciting thing that ever happened was the Potomac Mills Mall and the Halloween Pumpkin Festival that only had 2 rides, one of which breaking down last year.

"When are you going to tell her Jason," The female voice coming from the other end of the department issued cell phone that was just for business calls was loud and forceful in the ear of the young patrol officer.

"C'mon Amy, we talked about this...once Jessica has the baby-"

"That's what you always fucking say! First, it was wait until we move out of her mothers house, then it was... wait until I become a state trooper! I'm tired of waiting, you said you were going to be with me and you would tell Jessica and that was months ago!

Between the loud sound of the heavy rain hitting his windshield, loud thunder roaring through the night sky, loud rap music blasting on the radio and the loud mistress blasting on the cell phone...Jason was distracted! So distracted in fact, that he did not notice the movement off to his left, a dark figure moving swiftly through the rain and fast approaching his vehicle!

"Why are you trippin' Amy, huh?" started Jason. "You knew what you were getting yourself into when we got together. Why are you pushing this all of a sudden."

There was a few long moments of silence on the other end, followed by...

"...Because...I'm mm pregnant! I'm going to have your baby y Jason!"

Jason was shocked and speechless! Not just because, he was told that the woman he had been carrying on an affair with had been taking birth control but because he had no intention of leaving his fiance to be with her! Before Jason could respond...a loud thud hit the hood of his blue patrol car!

THUDDDD!

Jason who had not been looking at the road instinctively looked up and into the face of a hooded figure who was soaking and wet from the rain and covered in a long dark rain coat .

All Jason could make out was the person's eyes and it was eyes he would never forget! Jason immediately got terrified, thinking that he had just hit a innocent pedestrian...

"Amy, I gotta go!"

"What-"

Jason hung up the phone and through it into the passenger seat and hopped out of his 2013 Ford Taurus with the words State Police embedded in bold blue writing on the driver side door still visible in the turbulent weather. Jason pushed up his large round Campaign hat that sat on top of his head, as he approached the stranger, he had almost just ran over.

"Heyyy, I'm sorry I didn't see you! What are you doing out here...did your car break down-"

The stranger took off running into the woods and night weather...

"Wait," shouted Jason. "Do you need to go to the hospital or something?" The dark figure moved swiftly and was completed out of the officer's sight.

Jason could not believe the night he was having so far...but what he didn't know was it was about to get much worse! As he walked back to the driver's side door, he waved it off as some kid that out here fooling around and didn't want to get into trouble.

Just as he grabbed the door handle, a light off to the left caught his eye.

"Hello? Who's there?"

Jason began to walk closer to the area where he saw the glint of light. He pulled out his flashlight and put his other hand on his holster. The rain continued to pour down, which made it difficult to see much of anything. as Jason slowly approached what he had seen from the road...he could make out that it appeared to be some sort of plastic tarp. He begin to relax as he figured the guy from the road was probably trying to set up a tent from the rain...but then why had he run?

Jason knelt down to further inspect and at that exact moment...

BOOM!

Jason spun around with his gun and went from side to side with his heart beating through his chest!

"Ha-ha," Jason burst out laughing at himself when he realized it was just some thunder and that's when he saw the hand!

Jason swallowed hard as he felt the instant need to vomit...

He knelt back down and slowly pulled back the tarp and began to...scream!

Friday

Quantico, Virginia

4:45 PM

It was a relevantly quiet day at the Behavioral Analyst Unit of the Federal Bureau of investigation. The team had just returned from a grueling case in Long Beach, California in which the Unsub, William Harding, was obsessed with Greek mythology and used arsenic to kill his victims.

They were all drained and looking forward to the weekend!

Supervisory Special Agents Jennifer "JJ" Jareau and Alex Blake were sitting around the bullpen talking about their weekend plans.

"Will finally was able to get us reservations to Plume. It's this five star restaurant located in DC. Their food is to die for," said the beautiful blonde.
Blake nodded in approval. "Sounds nice! James and I are just going to snuggle on the couch all weekend and watch a marathon of House Hunters. "

"I love that show," chimed in JJ.

Just then SSA David Rossi came walking by the ladies, dressed sharply in a black and grey Italian made suit. The two women teased the oldest and most veteran member of their team with whistles and cat calls.

"Who's the lucky lady," asked Blake.

"You mean this time," laughed JJ.

"Ha ha very funny," started Rossi. "I am actually meeting Ringo for a guy's night out in Atlantic City."

"Mmm-hmm," JJ smirked.

"...and then he and I are picking up two nice brunettes!"

JJ and Blake burst into laughter.

"There's the Rossi, we know and love," said Blake.

SSA Derek Morgan had his go bag draped over his shoulder with his right hand and was staring down at his phone with his left. His girlfriend of the past few months Savannah had just texted him to say she was called into work and would have to cancel their plans.

The brown-skinned muscular agent sucked his teeth under his breath and looked up and came face to face with his teammate and good friend resident genius SSA Dr. Spencer Reid.

Morgan hated that he and Reid had not been as close as they once were, as life seemed to have gotten in the way but he figured his now open schedule could correct this...

"Hey Pretty Boy, you wanna go to the batting cages and knock a few back with me?" Morgan ran up to the tall slender agent, whose hair was cut in style where the curls draped his face.

Reid, whose was reading a case file from a San Francisco consult he was doing, replied without even looking up..."Sorry Morgan, I'm picking up my friend Ethan, he's coming into town and I'm meeting him at the airport. Call Savannah or Garcia, I'm pretty sure you'd a great time with either one of them."

Reid kept walking to his cubicle, without even noticing the sad expression on his colleague's face.

"Hey, my chocolate dipped Adonis!" The BAU's Technical Analyst and closet confidante to Morgan, Penelope Garcia came walking up in her flowery dress, purple heels and jewelry draping all over her short stout frame.

"Did I just get the cold shoulder," asked Morgan, while he still stared in Reid's direction.

"From Boy Genius," Garcia frowned her face in confusion. "Never that, Reid adores you. Anyway, I'm off to London! Emily invited me to the annual Streetfest that they have around this time of year, I'l send her your love, I hate to run out so fast but I'm trying to catch my plane before Hotch shouts the words..."

"Team, we have a case! Conference room please." Unit Chief SSA Aaron Hotchner stood dressed in his grey tailored suit, shouting down from atop the staircase leading to the BAU conference room, where they gathered to present the cases they would be spending the next several days solving.

"What!" Garcia growled. "We were 15 minutes to freedom!

"With this job baby-girl, we're never free," replied Morgan.

As the other agents marched off to the Conference room, they each resigned to the fact that they would have to cancel their long awaited plans.

"I guess, I'm calling Will," said JJ.

"...and I'm calling James," added Blake.

"I'll only call Ringo, I don't want to give up on the brunettes just yet," Rossi joked, sort of.

Hotch waited for each member of the team to take a seat at the round table before starting, their case files and tablets were already placed on the table, he pressed a button on the white remote in his hand and images filled the large plasma screen that was mounted to a wall in the middle of the room.

"Virginia State Police need our help," Hotch was the only one standing as he narrated the slides on the big screen. "Four days ago in Woodbridge, Meredith Ricci reported her husband Dr. Stanley Ricci missing. He told her he was going golfing but he never returned. The local authorities did not take it to seriously."

Images of the victim's driver license populated on screen.

"They figured, he probably run off with a mistress and would show up," Hotch continued. "Last night, at approximately one am, Dr. Ricci did turn up and this is what was left of him." Hotch pressed another button and images of the victim's decomposed body now flooded the screen.

The team members squirmed in their seats at what they saw...

Garcia turned away in disgust, "Warn a girl next time!"

"His brain was removed," said Blake aloud."

"A doctor whose brain was removed...well that's no coincidence," Rossi joined in.

"The Unsub is clearly sending a message," said JJ.

"Yes, by ripping out the brain, he's literately removing the victim's intelligence, his skill as a physician even," said Blake.

"Yeah, by saying 'your not so smart now, look what I did to you'," added in JJ.

Reid, who so far had been quietly analyzing the case file in front of him, which contained all of the photos and information being displayed on the monitor, finally spoke. "If the Unsub is keeping the brain as some sort of trophy, this could also symbolize him coveting the victims knowledge, which could mean that either he tried to be a doctor in his own life and failed or that he once was one and is no longer."

Morgan turned to Hotch, "We should also not rule out the possibility that the victim knew his attacker, removing someone's brain is overkill...which makes it personal."

"Were there signs of sexual assault," asked JJ.

Hotch circled the table.

"It doesn't appear to be, however it was a rainstorm last night in Woodbridge, so most of the crime scene and trace evidence had been washed away."

"Forensic counter measure," pointed out Blake.

"The ME did find small traces of a secondary DNA, located on the victim's abdomen," continued Hotch. "The victim was discovered partially wrapped in a plastic tarp, which was the reason why the DNA had not washed off."

"What type of DNA," asked Morgan.

"Semen," answered Hotch very matter of fact. "Their running it through CODAS but I doubt we will find a match."

The team looked at one another, as they knew that only meant one thing...

"A sexual sadist," said Rossi.

"I'm with Reid about the Unsub having medical training," Rossi continued speaking and shifted in his chair. "Do you have any idea how difficult it must be to cut through a person's skull?"

Reid lit up, as he always did whenever he was about to educate the team on a vast amount of vital statistics!

"Extremely! The adult skull consists of two parts of different embryological origin–the neurocranium and the viscerocranium. The neurocranium is a protective cranial vault that surrounds the brain and brain-stem. The viscerocranium is formed by the bones supporting the face, the skull protects the brain from damage through its hard unyieldingness; the skull is one of the least deformable structures found in nature with it needing the force of about 1 ton to reduce the diameter of the skull by 1 centimeter."

Off the amused faces of the other team members ..."Exactly what I was about to say," joked Rossi.

"He had him for four days...why?" Blake looked up from her tablet.

"That's what we need to figure out...we're off to Woodbridge-" spoke Hotch but he was interrupted by Rossi.

"Wait...only one body and we're being called in already?"

"When Lieutenant Whitaker who heads the Bureau of Criminal Investigations at the Virginia State Police contacted me, I agreed to take the case because he and I agree on several major factors...for starters the victim is a well respected surgeon within his community, people want answers and they want them fast and it's only a matter of time before panic and pandemonium set in...this is a small rural blue collar town, they have a shoot first and ask questions later mentality and the last thing we need on our hands is a bunch of scared townsfolk with guns, playing vigilante. The VSP is also worried about a potential public relations nightmare."

JJ was the first to ask, "Why?"

"The victim was discovered by one of their own, Officer Jason Peacock, which is why the Virginia State Police is heading the investigation. Seconds before he discovered the victim, he believes he also encountered the Unsub fleeing the scene. Officer Peacock had only been on the force for 6 months and they want to make sure that they have all of their basis covered."

Morgan placed his tablet back on the table and chimed in. "I get it! If the media gets a hold of this they will spin it that rookie cop lets killer of a prominent doctor get away."

"...but if the officer encountered the Unsub before he discovered the victim, he would not have known that was our killer. He can't be blamed for that," said Rossi.

"You know politics Dave, someone is always to blame," said Hotch who had his arms folded.

Blake started shaking her head..."That doesn't make any sense, to leave an eyewitness and a cop no less. Everything about this Unsub profiles like a organized offender but leaving an eyewitness is very disorganized. This was a dark and secluded area, he could have easily taken out Officer Peacock, why didn't he?"

"Maybe, he was unarmed but Officer Peacock had his weapon and he didn't want to initiate an altercation under those odds," said JJ.

"We will not be taking the Jet, since Woodbridge is only 20 minutes North-"

"Um, actually it is 21 minutes, fourteen point zero miles," Reid corrected Hotch and continued. "Twenty-seven minutes, seventeen point zero miles, if you take Russell Road to I-95."

Reid looked at Hotch's stern face and looked down.

Your Tahoe's are waiting for you downstairs. JJ, you will be meeting with Mrs. Ricci, she is expecting you at her home. Rossi and Morgan, I want you to go to the crime scene, there you will be meeting with both Lieutenant Whitaker and Officer Peacock. Reid, I want you to go to the Medical Examiner's office and view the body. Blake, you will be setting up at the Prince William County Police Station, there you will be meeting with Special Agent De La Rosa, with the BCI Unit. Garcia, I want you on victimology...I want to know everything there is to know about this Dr. Ricci, any Malpractice suits, any disgruntled ex-patients or co-workers, I want to know the name of all his high schools girlfriends and who they were sleeping with and who they were sleeping with. Do not leave any stones un-turned."

"Got it sir," replied Garcia.

"Your not coming Hotch," asked Morgan.

"I am but I have something to take care of first. We will all regroup and meet up at the Police Station at need to act fast because the level of blood-lust and skill, precision and articulacy shown by this Unsub leads me to believe that we will either discover more bodies or that he will kill again because this level of violence is certainly something one works up to but definitely does more than once...wheels leave in twenty!