A/n hello all. This story takes place between "Elephant's Memory and Lo-fi." This was begun before we were informed of JJ's pregnancy. She will be with Will although he doesn't appear in this story, and this will be Reid and Emily.

Disclaimer: See the new disclaimer on my profile.

Warnings: See the warning on my profile.

You can't escape the past

The moon was bone-white in the black night sky. They always say you can see the man in the moon if you look hard enough. That night, it looked like the de-fleshed skull of an alien dragon that hadn't quite made it to earth before succumbing to the freezing vacuum of space.

The stars were only vague shadows, drowned out by the light pollution from the city that lived below that ivory skull. Midnight was falling softly, dropping down over the desert like summer rain. The street was black, except for the street lights that punched holes of light into the halfway point between night and morning. The strip was miles away. There was only one casino on this street, the Golden Stetson. Its lights were one monotonous tone of gold and half of them were out. The lights on the sign that was shaped like a huge cowboy hat buzzed and flickered as though the establishment had forgotten to pay its utility bill.

The street was silent, except for the occasional car that passed through the neighborhood at a speed that suggested the drivers were ashamed to be there. They entered and exited at a rate of about one every thirty minutes.

The alleyway was black, but the one that moved within the ebony shadows and stinking garbage, didn't fear the dark. The night was a friend and so was midnight. The "gift," left for the police, didn't care about the night, she was dead. She was dead and naked. Her clothes had been removed before he had brought her here. He arranged the kill in just the right manner, before standing back and observing this work of art in the soft, white light of the moon. It was perfect and beautiful. It was too bad that everyone in the city wouldn't have the chance to see what he'd had wrought. Oh well…

He stood looking at the woman for a few more agonizingly sweet moments. This was good! She deserved her fate. She'd had it coming for years. She was only the first of many to come. He wasn't upset, having to leave his art behind him. After all… it wouldn't be too long before the police would call in help, and that would mean that…

He shivered with anticipation and turned away into the night. The walk in the moonlight was pleasant. The inhabitants of the night that would have preyed on a lone person walking those streets, stayed back as though afraid. He was pleased, it had been years in the making, but respect had finally been won. Soon… he would have all that should have been before it all went wrong.

--

Spencer stepped off the elevator at precisely nine am. It was Monday morning and the sun was shining. The sky was a deep, royal blue, in contrast to the white, fluffy clouds. It was a beautiful spring day and he was stuck inside.

The bull pen was crowded and noisy, with the sound of agents on phones and the ever present click-clack of computer keys. Morgan was talking to Emily when he got to his desk.

"… So I told her she'd get better response if she showed him her badge."

Emily snorted, "What did she say to that?"

"She threw her scotch in my face and flounced out." He admitted.

"You have such away with women." Emily shook her head.

Reid stashed his ready and messenger bags under his desk. It sounded like Morgan had managed to chase off another girlfriend.

"Hey Reid… how was your weekend? Any new women in your life," He smirked at his friend?

"My weekend was fine…"

"Sounds boring," Morgan observed.

"It wasn't," Reid said shortly.

"Hey… I'm just trying to have a conversation here."

"If you must know, I read four books, watched a Star Trek marathon on the Sci-fi channel, Saturday night I went on a blind date that was an utter disaster, and I went to two Beltway Clean Cops meetings. Are you satisfied?"

"Yeah…Why don't you back up to the blind date?" Morgan said with a grin.

"I don't want to talk about it." Reid insisted.

"Come on it can't have been that bad. Was she ugly?"

"No… she wasn't ugly." Reid was fingering his coffee mug.

"Then what was the problem?" Morgan probed.

"Leave him alone Morgan… He doesn't want to talk about it." Emily said.

"Morgan, Prentiss, Reid… I need you in the conference room now." Hotch said from upper walkway that encircled the bull pen. Rossi and JJ stood next to him.

"Duty calls…" Morgan grabbed a pen and followed Emily and Reid up the stairs. "Don't think this is over," He warned the younger agent.

They took their places around the table and JJ began her presentation. "Las Vegas is looking for a serial killer."

"Sweet… we get to go to Reid's home town." Morgan said.

"Focus please…" Hotch ordered.

"There have been five victims so far, two women and three men." JJ continued.

"Wait… Why do the cops think this is the same killer?" Morgan interrupted.

"It's unusual for a serial to killer to cross gender lines." Emily added.

"Not necessarily, if the killings aren't sexually motivated then it's possible," Reid said.

"Reid's right…" JJ said, changing the picture on the screen.

The nude body of a blond woman popped on screen. She was untouched except for the noose around her neck. The flesh around the rope was swollen and purple. She was posed against a blue dumpster, sitting with her legs splayed and her arms next to her sides. Her hair was shorn off, with the scalp showing pink in some places. There was a photograph next to her that looked like it was cut from a newspaper, or a book.

"Hey Reid… What's wrong," Rossi asked the younger agent, who'd gone white.

"JJ…" He swallowed hard. "Can you enhance that picture?" He squeaked.

"Reid… What the hell…" Morgan grumbled.

"In a minute Morgan…" Reid dismissed him. He got up on shaking legs and went to the projection on the wall. He closed his eyes took in a deep breath, let it out and opened his eyes. The picture was still there, only bigger. Even with the distortion in the features he recognized her.

"I can't…" Something clicked in his throat as a thousand terrible memories and emotions began to stir up in his head. Images of things he'd long forgotten, and things that wouldn't leave him alone even in his deepest dreams, began to surface.

"Reid…" Hotch's voice snapped through the fog like a bullwhip.

"I can't be on this case. I'll have to stay here. You have to go without me." The world looked like he was seeing it through the bottom of a soda bottle, pulled out of shape and milky.

"Reid…" Hotch said tightly and the others fell silent. "Explain yourself now." His boss demanded in clipped tones.

The world snapped back into focus for a minute at his bosses annoyed tone. "I'm sorry Hotch… I know the victim. I can't compromise the case."

JJ put a hand on his arm and smiled up at him. "You know her," She asked.

"Yeah… The rules say that if an agent has a personal connection to the victim they -"

"Don't quote regulations at me." Hotch stared the young man down. "I need my team together on this."

"But Hotch…"

"Reid… Did you have some kind of relationship with the victim recently?" His boss asked.

"No, I haven't seen her in fourteen years," Reid said flatly.

"Then how can you be sure you know her. You would have been -"

"I was twelve and just about to graduate from high school."

Something seemed to leap into Morgan's eyes and Emily gave him a strange look. "Reid… What's her name?" Morgan asked.

"It's Harper… Her name is Harper Hillman."

"Jesus…" Morgan said.

--

Hotch led Reid to his office and told him to sit down. The older agent took a seat across the desk from Reid and folded his hands on the green blotter in front of him.

"Alright… start from the beginning." Hotch said.

"I'd prefer not to go into it." Reid said. He was fidgeting with the sleeve of the charcoal gray dress shirt he wore.

"I don't care what you prefer not to get into. This is not a democracy Reid. You are an agent of this bureau and I am your Unit Chief. If you have information that is vital to this investigation, you better give it to me or I'll have you up on charges. Do I make myself clear?"

The wide-eyed young man in front of him went even whiter if that were possible. "I'm not withholding anything about the investigation." He insisted.

"You know the victim-"

"Victims… I know the victims. JJ was going to tell us the second woman was Alexa Lisbon."

Hotch opened the file folder and scanned the names of the victims. Spencer was right… the other woman on the list was Alexa Lisbon.

"Reid…" He said in a dangerous tone.

"You know… I wish that just for once I could keep all the bad memories out of my job." Reid had suddenly shot up from his chair and was standing over Hotch's desk.

"What happened with these two women?" Hotch asked again.

So Reid dropped back down in his chair, and told him the same story he'd told Morgan during their most recent case in Texas. "I don't want the others to know about it. It's bad enough that Morgan knows."

"You wouldn't have confided in him if you didn't trust him." Hotch was still sitting bolt upright in his chair.

His hands hadn't moved except to clench tighter together during Reid's story. The knuckles of his fingers had gone white. His face was as stony as ever, but some compassion had crept up into his dark eyes and he regretted the harsh words he'd said to his young friend.

"I'm sorry I was so short with you. I'm concerned for you."

"Hotch I promise you… I've been going to meetings every day we're not on a case. I'm okay."

"That's not what I meant…" Hotch said. Now it was Reid who stared him down. "Okay… So I am concerned about that…" He unclenched his hands and relaxed visibly. "I trust you Reid… If I didn't you wouldn't be on this team."

"I don't know what is going on Hotch. I need more information."

"Then let's go back and finish the briefing."

--

The man hummed as he worked. The list was getting shorter, but that didn't matter. There was still plenty to do before it was complete. There was plenty to keep him busy until he had what he most wanted! The clock on the wall read midnight. There was so much to do and so little time to do it.

"Please…" The voice whispered behind him. "I have a lot of money. I'll give you what ever you want!"

"Oh… I know you will…" The man said. "Now… let's play a little game, shall we."