A/n this is set right after "52 Pickup," and pretty much follows cannon to that point.

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Reid sat on the edge of his kitchen chair and stared at the phone in his hand. Should he call her? She was the one that had called him after the case in Atlanta. But did that mean that she wanted him to call her now? He put down the phone and pulled his wallet out of the messenger bag on the table next to him. The business card she'd sent back to him with the lipstick print on the back was in one of the slots meant for credit cards. He plucked it out and turned it over. She wouldn't have sent it back if she didn't like him. This was different from Lila, right? This wasn't transference, right? Surely he wouldn't get his heart broken again like he had with Lila and JJ.

He put down the card and picked up the phone. She'd be happy he'd called. He would just keep telling himself that over and over. His fingers trembled over the numbers, but he dialed despite their shaking

He listened to the phone ring and felt his heart begin to beat very fast. What if she didn't want to talk to him? What if he reminded her of the worst night of her life so far? Doubts almost made him hang up and then it was too late.

The connection to a girl hundreds of miles away was made much quicker than he was ready for. Her voice sounded in his ear and suddenly he couldn't stop the smile that spread over his face. The fingers of his empty left hand crossed for good luck.

"Hi Austin…" His voice stuttered and went up two octaves. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Hi… Ah its Reid… ah I mean Spencer."

Just kill me now!

There was silence on the other end and then she laughed, sounding delighted rather than politely disinterested. Then she said in a tone that was like tasting a bit of chocolate in his morning coffee.

"Well hello Dr. Reid. I'm surprised… I didn't think you'd call me."

He licked his lips while she spoke. "Why?"

"I thought I was just another girl you'd met on the job. I was useful and now it's over."

Oh, this was bad. Maybe she was mad at him. She didn't sound mad, but sometimes it was hard for him to tell.

"I… Um… I don't think of you like that." He sort of shouted into the phone.

Great, he should just hang up now and maybe he could keep what was left of his dignity.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to shout at you."

"Why don't we start over? Hello Spencer…"

"Hi Austin," his voice was much steadier,

"What's up?"

"Um… I just wanted to call you and see how you're doing."

"I'm fine… I'm working in a different bar now. I wanted to continue on with magic, but I have to pay the bills. There's a club here in Atlanta called the Magic Circle. It has the best reputation in the south for training illusionists. The problem is that they don't take amateurs. I can't seem to find anyone to teach me. The club has all these rules about how much magic you have to know before you can join the group. I think it's just a way to keep females out despite the 'no discrimination' laws. Did you know that there is a huge shortage of female illusionists, or prestidigitators, or whatever you call them?

"So you really meant that you wanted to go into magic." It was the only thing he could think of to say.

"Sure, I've wanted to be a magician since I was a kid. My dad always used to say that I had to get a real job. I actually listened to him. Then I met you and I realized that anything was possible."

Reid wanted to commiserate about parents squashing your dreams, but it was hard to sympathize when your dad had left and your mother was mentally incapacitated. He bit down on just blurting it all out to her.

"Did you know…?" Reid went into his lecture mode instead. "That, Modern entertainment magic owes much of its origins to Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, originally a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in the 1840s. His specialty was the construction of mechanical automata which appeared to move and act as if they were alive. The British performer J N Maskelyne and his partner Cooke established their own theatre, the Egyptian Hall in London's Piccadilly, in 1873. They presented stage magic, exploiting the potential of the stage for hidden mechanisms and assistants, and the control it offers over the audience's point of view. The escapologist and magician Harry Houdini, whose real name was Ehrich Weiss, took his stage name from Robert-Houdin and developed a range of stage magic tricks, many of them based on escapology.

"Spencer," Austin interrupted when Reid stopped for breath.

"I did it again, didn't I?"

"It's okay. You know, I think you must be able to read minds."

"Why do you think that?" His voice had begun to squeak.

"If you hadn't called me I would've called you."

"Really…"

"Yeah, I miss you and I want to see you again. Can you take some time off to come down here?"

"I don't know."

"Please Spencer; I really need to see you"

"What's wrong Austin?"

The jovial tone in her voice that had disguised something else in her voice that he'd missed with his own nervousness disappeared. She sounded on the verge of tears. How did he miss the fact that she was so upset? He was letting his attraction for her get in the way.

She's not a case. She likes you and you like her!

"I just need you here. Can you please come and make the nightmares go away?"

Nightmares… How could he make hers go away when he couldn't get rid of the images that haunted him every night? They were worse now that she played a role in them.

"I don't know…"

"Please…"

He couldn't say no to her. He would go down there. He had eight weeks of vacation time saved up. Hotch had been threatening to take the time away from him if he didn't use it.

"Okay… I'll talk to my boss."

"Thank you Spencer, I'm sorry I'm such a baby. I never used to cry before all of this happened. Now I seem to do it all the time when I'm alone."

"It's okay. I'll ask Hotch and call you back."

"Thanks Spencer… That guy really scared me. I thought I was going to die."

"Would you believe me if I told you that I know how you feel? I know it sounds trite and unfeeling but…"

She was quiet again for a long time and he thought he'd really blown it this time. "Yeah…" Her voice was very soft, "I believe you. There was something in your eyes that I noticed right away. Will you tell me what happened?"

"I can't not over the phone. It was something that happened to me the last time I came to Georgia on a case and it changed my life forever."

"Oh…"

"Do you still want me to come down there?"

He crossed the first two fingers of his right hand. He wanted to see her again despite going back to Georgia without the team, or a case, to distract him.

"Of course I do… Don't be ridiculous. I don't care what happened to you. If it was anything like what happened to me or worse, it's not my place to judge."

"Then I better go make the arrangements. I'll call you when I have the details."

----

Reid talked to Hotch and got permission to take as much time off as he wanted. Hotch told him that he didn't want to see him back in the office for at least a couple of weeks. Reid tried to tell him that he didn't need that much time, but Hotch gave him his patented look that meant 'do what I say or you're in big trouble," look.

Reid insisted on finishing out the day. Of course when Morgan found out where he was going, he had to endure the older man's teasing and Emily's smirks. He thanked God it was Friday and he could get out of town as soon as the day was over.

----

He looked down on the bullpen from his office. The way they were teasing Dr Reid was something he always found very interesting. The man was more intelligent than all of them put together. Why did he put up with them treating him like a child? He could work in the private sector and make truckloads of money. Why did he stay here in the Bureau? The man went back to his desk and picked up his phone.

"Get up here now! No… Don't you talk to me that way? I know you're busy… Yeah, I'm serious. I need you to move now. No… my source has confirmed that he's going out of town on vacation. He's been ordered away for at least two weeks. Yes… The information is accurate. If we're going to move, we have to go now!"

He shut his phone and went back to the window. Dr. Reid would soon be in his hands and there was nothing Aaron Hotchner or anyone else could do about it.

A/n the information about magic qouted by Reid is found in Wikapedia