Written for The Vampire Act for the Christmas Gift Fic Exchange at Chit Chat on Authors Corner.

Christmas song is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. Prompts are Snow, Christmas Lights and Gingerbread Men. Pairing is Hotch/Reid.

Only caution is for some bad language.

I do not own the characters of Criminal Minds, they belong to CBS, and it would be laughable to assume any profit is being made from this work of fiction.

Merry

Chapter One

The curled cord of the earpiece tickled Reid's neck and he had to fight the urge to shrug his shoulders in a makeshift itch as he concentrated on keeping two steps behind Hotch and holding both his gun and Maglite level in front of him. His breathing, although loud to his own ears, was measured and he couldn't help but marvel at his control over it despite his fear and the heightened quantity of adrenalin flooding his system.

The tickle increased when Hotch's quiet voice buzzed through the mic.

'Rossi, Prentiss. What's your location?' Hotch said.

A moment of static followed, broken by a low murmur from Rossi.

'Ground floor. Menswear. Changing rooms are clear. No sign of Lowell.' He replied.

Hotch stepped carefully and silently around a display of brightly painted Nutcracker guardsmen and almost disappeared into the network of shadowy shelves filled with cars and trains, dolls and decorations that populated the top floor toy section of Greys Department Store. Reid followed, his path lit by the rhythmic blinking of a bright red neon sign that read 'GROTTO'.

As a very small child, maybe three or four years old, Reid had wanted to visit a department store Christmas grotto but this proved difficult when your mother had declared department stores a governmental way of brainwashing the populous into conformity, and refused to enter them. He had tried to reason with her but she was a stubborn woman when she was both sick and well and so he was denied the chance to ask Santa how he defied both the laws of physics and mathematics to be in multiple geographical locations at the same time.

A small part of Reid wished he was that four year old boy again, wrapped in the tenuous safety of his mother's arms rather than following his boss on the heels of a spiralling serial killer. The bigger part of him reminded him that this was his job and he loved it. He loved solving he puzzle. He loved finding the UnSub. They all did.

Today's UnSub, Carter Lowell, was an ordinary man, living an ordinary life, doing an ordinary job. He worked maintenance for a firm that serviced retail stores in DC. He re-wired lights, fixed floor to ceiling mirrors, replaced worn carpet tile and when he was done, murdered late night Christmas shoppers.

He liked to leave them posed in store front windows for early morning commuters to see. He liked to watch them drop their take out cups of coffee as they realised what they'd just walked past.

Of course the team found him, or rather Garcia and her babies did. He wasn't hard to track however he was proving hard to pin down. Reid had been sure that Greys was the next place he would hit and Christmas Eve was the next date. Hotch had trusted his geographical profile and had brow beaten the manager into clearing the store on the busiest day of the year. The manager hadn't wanted to, but when Hotch had shown him a photograph of the last store window Lowell had dressed he'd agreed, after he'd finished vomiting into his waste paper basket.

SWAT had gone in first, rigging the lights so they ran on back-up power, shrouding the store in shadow to give them the advantage with their infra-red sights. They came up empty.

Hotch had looked to Reid then and asked 'You're sure?'

Reid had nodded and the team had gone in.

Hotch's voice tickled in Reid's ear again. 'Morgan. Your location?'

'Women's underwear.' Morgan replied.

'Not a surprise.' Prentiss whispered back.

'Focus.' Hotch breathed.

'All clear.' Morgan said.

'This is a bust. We're heading back downstairs.' Rossi said.

'Me too.' Morgan agreed.

'Ok. Let's pull out and re-group. We need to re-think.' Hotch said.

Reid was concentrating so hard on the voices in his ear that he almost bumped into Hotch, not realising that the man had stopped moving.

'Wait.' Hotch whispered. 'Wait.'

Reid registered the slight noise from his right, a faint rustle of clothing, but it was too late to stop the heavy wooden Nutcracker figure from swinging into the side of his boss's head, dropping him like a house of cards. Reid turned to face the assailant only to feel a massive hand shove him squarely in the middle of his chest.

Reid landed hard on his ass and instinctively scooted back across the floor, his gun and Maglite wavering in front of him, his palms itching with sweat. His back met the wall, the sudden jarring almost making him drop his gun. He swallowed, forcing his chest to stop heaving, his heart to slow so he could focus on the situation.

He could see Hotch out cold on the floor in front of him. He couldn't see the UnSub.

Reid blinked the sweat from his eyes and swallowed. Pressing his back against the wall he pushed his feet beneath him and slid upwards to stand, his eyes strained to make out anything in the darkness. He swung the beam of his Maglite in a wide arc ahead of him; the light bounced off the toys, dozens of wide plastic eyes stared back at him, but no UnSub.

He glanced down at Hotch. He was still, his right arm reaching out in front of him, his fingertips millimetres away from his Maglite and a dark spatter of blood that fanned out from his temple. Reid quickly scanned the floor for Hotch's gun.

'Morgan.' Reid whispered.

'Kid? You and Hotch still up there?' Morgan's voice blared in Reid's ear.

'Morgan. The UnSub, He's up here. Officer down. I repeat ...' Reid was part way through a sentence when he heard the air whistle by him and felt an explosion of pain as something heavy connected with his wrist sending his gun flying in one direction and his Maglite in the other.

A hand fisted into Reid's hair and he was yanked face to face with Carter Lowell.

'You think you can stop me from painting this city red? Lowell said, his face flushed, spittle flying from his mouth. 'You think you can fucking stop ME!'

Reid gasped as he was shoved back into the wall and Lowell jammed his knee up, into his groin, pinning him in place as he yanked the mic from Reid's ear, hauling the cord up from under the back of his sweater and out through his collar. Lowell flung the earpiece and cord behind him.

'All alone now FBI.' Lowell said.

Reid felt something hard nose under the bottom of his Kevlar vest and press into his flesh just above his hip.

'I found your partner's gun.' Lowell said as he smiled and pulled the trigger.