Prologue

It was a cold, snowy Friday afternoon in late winter, and both Reid and Morgan were headed home, ready to enjoy their first weekend off in more than a month. As they got off the elevator on the first floor, Morgan immediately noticed a woman walking across the lobby and down the hallway to their right.

Looking over at Reid he commented, "See you Monday, Man. That is the lady I have been trying to hook up with. Maybe I can buy her a drink on the way home tonight. I might get lucky!"

"You never stop do you?" Reid asked. "All right – See you Monday then."

Morgan drew a deep breath. "Why don't you come with me?" he suggested. "Maybe she has a friend."

"Oh No!" Reid immediately protested. "You know how I am with women. All sweaty and nervous and everything. I'll see you Monday and you can tell me all about it then."

"Okay. Your loss," Morgan commented with a grin as he turned to head down the hallway. "Hello there, pretty lady!"

Resignedly shaking his head, Reid flipped the hood of his jacket up over his head before walking out of the building and into the blowing snow.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

In a warehouse just outside Quantico, a large older man sat behind a desk, looking at the two scrawny young men dressed in hoodies standing in front of him.

"I don't care if you are my wife's nephews," he told them. "I really don't want to hire you for this job. However, you are family and my wife insists I need to give you a chance. Do you understand your instructions?"

"Yeah, Boss!" the taller of the two replied. "We go over to the FBI building and grab the agent who has been harassing you."

"Name's Jason Schuster and this here's his picture," the second hireling held up a photo.

"And, once we have him, we bring him back here to you," the first man completed the instructions.

"Okay, that's basically it," the man behind the desk agreed. "However, you forgot the most important point."

"Oh Yeah!" the second man smirked. "Don't get caught!"

The older man sighed resignedly. "It's payment on delivery," he reminded the two young men. "Give me a call when you have him so I can be ready and waiting."

As the two young men sauntered out of the warehouse, the boss turned to another man who had been standing in the shadows behind him. "I have a really bad feeling about this," he confessed.

And The Adventure Begins -

As Reid hurried through the falling snow to the subway station, he was focused on staying dry and getting out of the weather and, consequently, wasn't paying any attention to his surroundings. It was no surprise, then, that he didn't notice when a large, dark colored sedan suddenly appeared and began trailing along behind him. In an effort to get out of the cold weather sooner, he decided to cut through the parking lot adjacent to the subway station.

He was halfway across the lot when the sedan pulled up in front of him, blocking his progress. Reid ignored it and detoured to walk around the vehicle. However, when a man with a gun jumped out of the back seat of the vehicle and placed himself directly in front of the agent, Reid came to a sudden stop.

"Get in the car," the man ordered, pointing his weapon at Reid.

"What?" Reid asked, confused.

"Into the car," the man repeated, waving the gun.

Reid glanced around. There were other people in the general area but most were a distance away and, like him, were concentrating on getting into the subway station so they could get home. It was unlikely that they would notice the drama taking place between the parked cars. The man standing in front of him had a weapon out and pointed directly at him. He also appeared to be inexperienced and unstable. Who knew what he would do if challenged? Taking a deep breath, Reid decided he had best comply with the order.

Once Reid was in the back seat of the vehicle, his abductor climbed in after him and immediately began clumsily trying to frisk him.

"Where is your gun?" he demanded.

"Right here," Reid pointed.

"Okay," the man, or more likely kid, Reid realized now that they were in close quarters, grabbed the weapon waved it in the air.

"I have an FBI gun!" he shouted gleefully.

"SHUT UP!" the driver of the vehicle instructed. "I need to call Uncle and let him know that we have his agent and are on our way over."

"Yeah!" the gunman agreed. "Let him know we have Schuster."

"Schuster?" Reid stared at him. "I'm not Schuster! He's with Organized Crime. I'm Dr. Spencer Reid from the BAU."

"Yeah – Right!" the driver told him as he pulled out a cell phone and pushed a button.

"Now, shut up and sit still until we tell you otherwise," the gunman added as he forcefully drove his gun into Reid's ribs.