Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any related aspects, which belong to their respective owners. No money made.

Summary: Duet partners of a certain violinist are murdered after their first performances. The BAU are asked to help find the killer.

Rating: M

Warnings: Violence, sexual themes, yaoi, language

[Criminal Minds] The Essentials [Hotch/Reid, Reid/OMC, OMC/OMC]

Prelude [An instrumental work intended to precede a larger piece.]

"Briefing in 5."

Spencer Reid sighed and ran a hand through unruly brown hair. He'd just walked through the glass doors that led to the bullpen. He hadn't even had coffee yet. Heck, he hadn't even sat down. "Thanks, JJ."

This is going to be another great day, he mused. He really wasn't looking forward to another case, seeing as there had been several in the past few weeks already and, from his point of view, the whole team was in dire need of a break.

He scanned the room. Morgan was dozing off in his chair and Prentiss was idly shuffling through papers. Hotch was on the phone in his office, pinching the bridge of his nose. Reid fought the urge to groan and put down his shoulder bag.

Yup. Another great day was definitely in the making.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"…I just shot someone at 703 Allegro Street."

"Sir? Excuse me?"

JJ turned off the recording. "Five victims over a time period of three months, all found in the Southern California area. Two women, and three men, each one shot once in the forehead at point-blank. Each of them had minor bruises and injuries suggesting a struggle, but no other damage other than the gunshot wounds. That includes sexual abuse." JJ switched from image to image on the screen to follow her narration.

The bodies of the victims were spread-eagle on carpeted floors, nearly unblemished save for the holes in their foreheads. They were all fully clothed and lay with their eyes closed, as if asleep.

"The victims were found in their homes and 911 was tipped off for each." She continued. "The UnSub used the victims' home phones so we couldn't get a trace, but assuming that there was no voice-altering involved, we've got his gender."

"And, possibly his ethnicity." Reid stated. "The way he said 'at' without using his tongue and the way his 'r' and 'l' sound in 'Allegro' suggest Asian origins, maybe Japanese, and most likely second- or third- generation."

"Whoa there, tiger," Morgan said, quirking an eyebrow. "Let's not go too far too fast, okay? The first thing I'd be working on would be, 'why these victims?'"

Reid shrugged. "It was just an observation."

"Morgan's right. Speaking of race, though," Hotch sorted through the pictures of the crime scenes, "nearly all of the victims are of different ethnicities. Different age groups too. The two women are Caucasian; one is in her 20s and the other is in her 40s, and the men are African-American, Korean, and Caucasian and aged from 35 to 60." He looked up from the file at his team. "There's no correlation."

"Well, they must have had something in common." Prentiss said, looking back at the screen. "JJ?"

"Well, they were all musicians. They each were employed under orchestras that toured Los Angeles at one point or another. That's also where the most recent victim happened to live."

"We'll start there then." Rossi stated flatly. "Plane leaves in half an hour."

"Thanks so much for coming. I'm Officer Erik Johnson, and I'm overseeing this case. My supervisor asked me to get you guys situated." Johnson was a solidly built man in his 30s with thinning light brown hair and gray-blue eyes. He smiled warily and looked at the team, clearly nervous. Having so many FBI agents so near him was not something he was used to.

"SSA Aaron Hotchner. These are Agents Morgan, Rossi, Jareau, Prentiss and Dr. Reid." He gestured to each one in turn. "I need to get some of my team out on the last crime scene as soon as possible. Do you mind?"

Johnson was surprised, "You sure you don't need to, uh, settle in to your hotel or anything? Or, er, look into our files here first? I mean, it's not that I mind, but, if you need some time to do those things…?"

Hotch didn't falter for a second. "Already been done. We need to work fast, seeing that our killer could have another target chosen already and we have no idea who or why." He turned away from Johnson and towards his team. "Prentiss, Morgan, you two go to the scene. Reid, Rossi, and I will stay here and go through everything LAPD has on this case. JJ, I need you to establish connections with Garcia and keep her updated." Hotch turned to Johnson again. "Our technician," he said in explanation.

Johnson nodded, still a little dazed. These people worked fast. He only wished the cops here would be that diligent. "Sure. I'll get some guys to escort your agents out there."

"Thank you."

"No problem. The files on the case are this way…"

"Speaketh, O mortal, and the mighty Mistress of methodical information shall answer."

"…Garcia? Did you just alliterate?"

"Yes, human."

Reid snorted. "It's been speculated that the conscious usage of alliteration in dialogue is a sign of insanity."

"…Fine, boy wonder. Ruin my day."

"Sorry," Reid muttered, smiling. "I need you to run something for me."

"As long as it's not a marathon, I'm listening."

Reid rolled his eyes. "That's not even funny. Anyway, the last victim was a pianist in a performance that runs until next week. I need to know if the orchestra knows about her death, whether or not they know it was a murder, and whether or not the performance is still running."

He could hear the clicking of keys in the background. "Yes, yes, and yes. They were informed right before you guys arrived. They're playing every night at 8. It lasts until 11. My guess is that they've already replaced her."

Reid blinked. That was fast. "So are tickets sold out already?"

"For tonight? No. Planning to take someone on a date?"

Reid rolled his eyes again. "No, but it will be two people going. Hotch wants to interview the orchestra members. The fastest way in is the most obvious. Besides," he shrugged, "I like classical music."

"Oh, so the boss-man is taking you on a date."

Reid groaned. "Tickets, Garcia."

On the other end of the line, Garcia grinned. "Done. You have your own private box, too. That's pretty luxurious. Not to mention a little scandalous. Think of the things you could do instead of watching the orchestra. I mean, you only need your ears to enjoy the music anyway, so-"

Reid hung up.

[A/N] Here we go. Here we goooo~!

I'm very frightened. I haven't written anything for the Criminal Minds fandom before, and I'm jumping right in with a very long story. Not only that, but the story has OCs in it. I'm a little worried about their presence since I've never written OCs before, but I'm determined to finish this.

This is really scary. REALLY SCARY. I'm scared of making the canon characters too OOC. I'm scared about the pairings that I'm choosing to write. I'm also worried that my plotline will be too hard to follow. So to make it easier, I'm breaking up the story into bite-sized chunks of about a thousand or so words each. The entire thing has pretty much already been written, though.

I hope this story is alright!

Thank you very much for reading.