He woke in a cold sweat. The man had invaded his dreams again. He reached for his alarm clock. 3:48 a.m.

He rolled onto his back knowing that there was no way he would be able to get back to sleep. He squeezed his eyes shut anyway, only to be met with the image of the scowling figure.

Go away, he thought in vain. Leave me alone.

You know what you need to do to make me go away, the man replied.

He knew. He just didn't want to admit it.

You'll be back, even if I do it.

I will, but won't it be nice for a little quality time to yourself? You need your rest. Eventually it will happen. Eventually, you'll give in. You always do.

Reid hurried into the BAU. He was running late. Again. He looked up at the conference room and saw Hotch already filing the team in on the new case.

Great, he thought to himself.

Dashing up the stairs and down the hall, he tried to think of some excuse, even though he knew it would be useless. He wasn't that good of a liar to begin with, and lying to a group of profilers was pointless. He silently opened the door to the conference room. No one said anything, but everyone looked at him. He tried to smile a sorry, but had to stifle a yawn instead. He quickly slid into the seat next to Morgan.

Morgan looked over and gave him an I'm talking to you later look. Reid ignored him and focused on Hotch.

"The Unsub is unique in the fact that he copies many killers instead of just one. The only thing that connects the murders is an apology that he leaves at each victim's house: 'I'm sorry for what I've done. I had no choice. Please forgive me.' We're leaving in twenty minutes." Hotch took a call on his cell phone as everyone else filed out of the room.

Reid ignored Morgan, who was following him, and went to the coffee machine. He hadn't had time to stop by Starbuck's and was already feeling like he was falling over.

"You gonna tell me what's up?" Morgan asked, leaning on the wall next to the machine.

"I don't know what you mean. I just didn't wake up on time." Reid couldn't decide between hazelnut or almond flavoring.

"Keep tellin' yourself that, kid, maybe someday it will be true." Morgan gave Reid a meaningful look as he left.

In frustration, Reid just punched a button. He sighed as he raised the coffee to his lips and took a sip. He made a face at the taste of apricot coffee.

"Reid, man, wake up! It's time to go." Morgan shook Reid's shoulder, jerking him awake.

"What?" Reid asked as he shook his head, trying to clear it.

"You fell asleep," Morgan chuckled. "It's time to head out to the jet. Come on."

Reid looked in confusion at his desk for a minute before the day's events came back to him. Blinking hard and yawning, Reid grabbed his overnight bag and his shoulder bag before running to catch up with the rest of the team.

In the SUV, Reid started on his second coffee of the day. Morgan had been smart enough to grab him one.

"I don't think it's going to help much," Morgan had shrugged as he'd given Reid the coffee. Reid had thanked him profusely and promised to buy him dinner while they were where ever they were going.

Morgan was sitting up front with Hotch while Reid was in the back like usual. They were talking about the case. Reid was hardly listening.

"What do you think Reid?" Hotch asked, looking at him in the rearview mirror.

Reid scratched his head as he tried to remember what was last said. Something about a past killer using hammers and strangling people…. "That would be John Wayne Glover, better known as 'The Granny Killer'. He would attack his victims with hammers in broad daylight and public places then strangle them with their own pantyhose."

"That was his first kill," Hotch continued in his conversation with Morgan.

Reid stared out the window. He wasn't needed anymore. If they wanted something else, they would ask. The entire case would be gone over again on the plane. Right now, all Reid could think about was sleep.

He shook himself and took another gulp of his quickly cooling coffee.

The SUV stopped at the airport and Reid quickly left the car, not waiting for Hotch and Morgan. JJ, Prentiss, and Rossi were already on the jet and settled in. Reid nodded in their general direction and slid into the closest seat. He sighed and finished off his coffee. Men and women both consume on average 1.6 coffee cups a day. I'm well on my way to surpassing that, Reid thought as he yawned yet again.

Hotch and Morgan entered the jet and Reid quickly took out a book and started to read a random page. Reid simply flipped pages at the appropriate times instead of actually getting into the book. He had no energy. It wasn't long after takeoff before the words began to blur and Reid again slipped into a fitful sleep.

You can't stand this forever, the man said.

Yes I can. I'm stronger than you.

You never were a good liar. It's time for you to face the truth. The only way to stop this is to do as I ask. It's so simple.

No…. no… I won't… I won't….not again…

Loud laughter jolted Reid awake. The still open book on his lap fell to the floor with a loud thunk.

"Reid? Are you awake?" JJ called from the back of the plane.

"Yeah," Reid answered. He rubbed his face with one hand as he bent down and picked up the book. He felt like he hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

"Good," Rossi said. "Maybe now somebody can put this cheater in his place."

Reid looked back and saw that everyone was gathered around the table engaged in a game of poker. Even Hotch was smiling. Morgan was obviously winning with his giant stack of chips.

Reid smiled sleepily as he unfolded his gangly form from the chair. "Okay, fine. I'm coming."

Prentiss vacated her seat, giving him her meager pile of chips and her own hand. "I stink at this game. You take over."

Reid slid into the seat.

"Ready to loose, man?" Morgan asked.

Reid only smiled. I didn't grow up in Las Vegas and learn nothing.

Reid knew when to fold, when to raise, when to call. He played all his cards right and in no time, Morgan was feeling the heat.

"All in," Morgan said.

"Same here."

"Show your hands, boys," Rossi said.

"Full house," Morgan smiled as he reclined in his chair. "Looks like you're a little too tired to day my man."

"Don't celebrate too soon, Morgan. Straight." Reid triumphantly laid out his cards.

"Now, what are the chances of you getting that?"

Reid's mind started to work without him really thinking. "About 40 out of 2,598,960, or about 0.0014%. Your hand is about 0.14% likely."

"Thanks, Reid."

"No problem," Reid smiled.

"I can't beat you at gin, now I can't beat you at poker."

"I keep telling you, you can't beat a magician."

Hotch cleared his throat. "OK, guys, back to business. Now that everyone's awake, let's review the case."

Reid shifted uncomfortable in his chair, trying to become as small as possible.

"Our killer has killed two times. The first kill was two months ago. Thanks to Reid, we know that his killing was based off 'The Granny Killer'. His next kill happened a week ago. It was more like the Zodiac Killer. Again, he leaves a note at each crime scene apologizing…."

Reid paid attention and made comments like a good genius. No one seemed to care anymore about his lateness. He was glad. He didn't want to have to explain himself.

The BAU team walked into the police station, earning glances from all the cops in the place. The head honcho met them in his office.

"Hello. My name is Ron Handel. I'm the chief here," the chief introduced himself to Hotch.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Aaron Hotchner. These are the SSA's David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, and Emily Prentiss. And this is Dr. Spencer Reid."

Handel shook everyone's hand and invited them to take seats if they could find them. Handel's office was covered in papers, evidence boxes from past cases, and photos of the crime scenes.

"We've never had anything like this happen here. Usually it's petty crimes, like breaking and entering. We've never had a murder. We're a small town."

"Well, you're about to get a lot of media coverage," JJ said as she flipped through her copy of the case file. "These killers drew a lot of attention in their day. The media will be all over this."

"JJ is in charge of media control. She'll take care of everything," Hotch assured the chief.

"I'm going to go and warn the families." JJ left the room quickly, probably already thinking of how she should prepare the families.

"We need all the information you have on the victims as quickly as possible. It will be better if we get a profile on the suspect before the media gets here," Hotch pressed.

"Sure, sure." Handel shuffled through some papers on his desk and extracted a stack of papers about an inch thick.

"Reid." Hotch handed the stack to him. "Would you do the honors?"

Reid nodded. He started reading as he half listened to the conversation going on.

Handel eventually asked the question that always came up when Reid was reading. "Can you really read that fast?"

"Yes, actually," Reid said. He decided to forgo spouting out the statistics of how many words the human mind can process subconsciously. He was already half through the pile and so far there had been no similarities between the victims.

JJ poked her head into the room. "The press is here."