Reid all but ran down the halls of the F.B.I building, wide eyes looking out for any sign of Morgan. His arms laden with case files obscured the path directly in front of him, making him stumble every couple of steps.

He had decided earlier that morning while in the queue of his favourite coffee shop that it would be safer if he spent the day working in Hotch's office, or the still relatively new agent Rossi's. He hoped they would take pity on him and let him stay.

As today was the day he dreaded above any other. He was half tempted to take the day off but that would ruin his 100% attendance, unfortunately some habits, no matter how old he grew could not be broken and the vivid memory from his childhood of his mother on one of her good days telling him what happed to naughty boys who pretended to be ill to get out of school would forever haunt him, although he thought the circumstances were not quite the same.

So here he was running down the halls at 7am on April fools, desperately trying not to run into a certain co-worker who had probably already planned his pranks months in advance and would now be waiting for his victim to arrive.

Spencer knew that the victim was himself. He might as well have a target on his back on April fools as it seemed Morgan was out to get him.

He still remembered last year when Morgan super glued him to his chair. The team found it hilarious and the situation became even more embarrassing as the only way to get free was to take off his trousers, leaving him only in his boxer shorts. He got a lot of odd glances as he walked to his car that day. From then on, he vowed never to let something like that happen to him ever again.

Spencer's eyes grew to the size of saucers as he saw Morgan casually walk out of the elevator, a grin from ear to ear planted on his face, chatting with another agent Reid didn't recognise. The panic inside of Reid grew and he found himself facing a large oak door leading to an office that he presumed was Hotch's but as he'd been distracted on his wondering he couldn't be sure. He flung open the door, not bothering to waste time knocking and in one swift movement walked into the office, closed the door and spun round to see the occupant sat at their desk. Their head buried in case files.

To Spencer's horror it was not his boss Agent Hotchner who sat in front of him but none other than the head of the B.A.U; Agent Strauss.

Reid found it hard to stop himself from dropping the mountain of files in his hands as the shock of the scene before him sunk in. A cold sweat spread across his body, heart pounding and colour slowly draining from his face. He realised that in his mad spree to escape Morgan he must have run into the wrong office with Hotch's office only next door. It was an easy mistake to make, this offered little comfort for him in his present state however.

The passing thought that crossed his suddenly absent mind to try and make his escape by backing out of the office unseen was scuppered when Strauss' head bolted up, locking eyes on the agent before her.

Erin regarded the young agent with curiosity peaked, flashes of thought sparked in her mind.

Thinking back to when she first entered the male dominated world of the FBI all those years ago she couldn't have been more than a few years older than the boy stood nervously in front of her, and yet his child like mannerisms had her forgetting that fact in a heartbeat. What could she expect from an agent barely out of his teens? What she didn't expect were the maternal feelings that were awoken upon seeing said young man juggling far too many case files for any normal agent to file in a week. But as she'd learned Spencer Reid was no ordinary agent. Back in her day a female agent was still considered by some as a radical concept. Being the ambitious and motivated person she was, she dedicated herself to proving herself and pushing her career forward to prove the naysayers wrong. It was only now as she sat in her well-earned office, a glittering career behind her that she realised what she was missing; a family.

While she focused on rising in the ranks the years had come and gone and before she knew it the time to start a family had past. Maybe that was a good thing, she told herself a lifetime fighting to get to the top had made her harsh, something that was made very clear to her when she would stroll out of her office. She pretended not to hear when agents under her command muttered insults about her, preferring to call her the "Ice Queen" for her perceived lack of emotions. She only wished that were true, finally comfortable with where she sat on the FBI food chain, and now that she had to worry about the scurry of younger agents snapping at her heals, waiting for her to make a mistake so they could take what little she had left.

One agent above all others had her fearing the worst, and that agent was Aaron Hotchner. Since Jason's sudden departure and Hotchner's promotion to official section chief, the volume of solved cases coming from his unit had doubled. The man himself was just as ambitious as she was in her youth, but that was to be expected from an ex-lawyer. It didn't take a profiler to know that he was not a fan of her. Maybe it's the job she wondered, maybe it was cursed. If the people needed some shared villain to gossip about, letting off steam between witnessing the horrors of the world then she resigned herself to the fact that she fit the bill. If it helped their work place then she could continue living the lonely life of a boss. As quick as the flashes of thought came they were gone, a lifetime of revelations passed in the blink of an eye and now she was left to deal with the frightened young man in front of her.

Something about the boy's big brown eyes and nervous disposition had her icy demeanour melting away. This had to be the longest time she had spent alone with the young doctor. His team had made sure of that, overly protective towards any perceived threat that unfortunately included her, the poor boy could go nowhere it would seem without having a chaperone. And now here he stood; completely alone in her office not a team member in sight. Whatever the cause she was determined to find out what had brought this most unexpected visitor to her.