After getting back from the station I pretty much ate dinner, did some packing, and went to bed. In the morning, I woke up to my alarm blaring. I groaned, throwing my hand overtop of the screen to silence it. Groggily I sat up, wiping my eyes as I got up to get ready. I gathered up my clothes and snuck into the bedroom, which was thankfully empty. Letting out a sigh I went to the bathroom to get ready. I did my usual routine pretty quick while I listened to some music. As I filled in my brows my phone started ringing. I let out a heavy breath, grabbing the phone off the counter. "Hello?"

"Ah, Riff-Riff, hello."

"Cooper," I glanced at my face in the mirror, giving my eyebrows a quick once over before continuing to fill in the left one.

"We got two more bodies. Hotchner's riding my ass to get the autopsies done so I'm gonna need you to come in now."

I closed my eyes, biting my lip. Two bodies in one day definitely indicated a devolving killer, which was very bad. "Uh, for sure. I'm pretty much ready anyway."

"Good. I'll see you soon." He hung up, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore them as I finished up my makeup and tied my hair back. I adjusted the button up shirt I was wearing, giving the mirror one last look before deciding that my appearance probably didn't matter much and heading out.

I got to work pretty quickly. I sped through the front doors and walked across the main floor toward's the examiners entrance. I pushed through the doors and sprinted to Cooper's office, which was empty. I sighed and moved next door, opening it up silently to see Cooper standing over one of the bodies. His arms were crossed over his chest, staring down curiously. When he noticed I arrived, he looked up, a small smile spread across his normally agitated face. "Took you long enough," he mumbled.

I rolled my eyes. "I basically ran here. What more do you want?" I wandered over to the hanger, swapping my bag out for lab coat. As I put it on I heard Cooper walking behind me.

"Do you not have a car?"

I grabbed a pair of gloves, quickly sliding them on before walking to his side and sighing. "I live like fifteen minutes away. I don't need one."

"Are you one of those carbon footprint hippies?"

I snorted, giving him a weird look. "No, I just don't feel like I need to waste my money on a car." I retorted.

"Whatever," he sighed, "enough chit chat." He adjusted the gloves on his fingers and pulled down the sheet on the body to the left. "This is Riley Young," he moved over to the second body, doing the same, "and Trisha Carson."

I looked over both of their bodies carefully. Riley was young, just like the girl from the alleyway with dark hair and pale skin. She had similar bruising, as well as the same ligature marks around her limbs, along with a black eye. Trisha however, was the opposite. She was blonde with tan skin and different markings, none of which indicated that she was tied down. However, unlike Riley she had a couple of bruises near her thighs.

"These look like two different victims," I mumbled to myself.

"Well they are," Cooper responded, sounding slightly confused.

"No," I shook my head, "I mean it looks like they've been killed by two different people. See Riley's body," I pointed, "she basically matches the Jane Doe from the alleyway to a tee, while Trisha," I moved my hand to her, "looks like the other two you told me about."

Cooper narrowed his eyes and took a couple of steps away so that he was standing at their feet. He looked at both of them curiously, his eyes dancing between the bodies until eventually he blinked and raised his brows in surprised. "As much as I hate being upstaged in my own house I think you're probably right."

I smirked. "Maybe taking some criminal profiling classes would do you some good." I wandered over to the workstation and grabbed a couple of tools, throwing them onto a tray before wheeling it next to Riley's body. "I heard Reid's quite the lecturer."

"Speaking of Dr. Reid," a playful smirk arose across Cooper's face as walked to grab his tools. He rummaged through them silently for a couple of moments. Just like me, he threw everything on a wheeled tray and brought it over to Trisha. "You should've seen his face when you left."

"No offence, Dick, but that shit you pulled was rude."

He chuckled as he grabbed his scalpel. He twisted it smoothly between his fingers as he glanced down at Trisha and then back up at me. "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, kid."

"Do you have a list of one-liners you use to try and sound cool?" I asked.

"I don't have to sound cool, Riff-Raff, I am cool."

I snorted as I grabbed my own scalpel and started working. As we performed our autopsies we spoke. Like yesterday, Cooper talked on and on, while I, for the most part stayed silent. Around half way through Cooper got a call from Hotch asking if we'd discovered anything yet, to which he rolled his eyes and silently mocked him. Eventually, Cooper handed off the phone to me, claiming I could provide more information than him.

"Hotch?" I peeled the gloves off my hand as Cooper tucked his phone in between my ear and shoulder. I held it there carefully, throwing the gloves into the bin before grabbing on to it and sighing.

"What do you got for us?"

"Well, I think you guys might have two unsubs," I swallowed hard, taking a quick moment to listen for a reaction. When I didn't get one I licked my lips. "The bodies have completely different injuries. We're only half way through the internal exam, but from what I've gathered about past victims I could bet money that Trisha was raped and Riley wasn't."

"And you're sure about this?"

"Positive, sir," I responded, "I'm in the process of searching Riley's stomach and I can confirm she was pretty dehydrated. There's a lot of alcohol in her system and based on the ligature marks it looks like this unsub was keeping her tied up and intoxicated."

"What about Trisha?"

I glanced over at Cooper, raising my brow as I offered him the phone. He gave me an unimpressed look as he snatched his phone back, quickly putting the phone on speaker and turning on his heel. "Her stomach's clean. Not a drop of adult juice in her system," he said.

"Okay, well, call me back once you guys are finished and I'll send Morgan and Reid back over to take a look."

"Sounds good," I responded.

Cooper said nothing, hanging up his phone before tossing it back on the desk and rolling his eyes. "So impatient," he mumbled.

"He's just trying to do his job." I walked over and grabbed a fresh set of gloves, adjusting them to my fingers as I walked back over to Riley to continue what I was doing.

"So am I," Cooper responded grumpily.

"Yesterday you were complaining about having to come in on your day off," I pointed out, "if Hotch doesn't do his job quickly that means more work for us."

He shut up after that, quietly grumbling to himself as he threw on some fresh gloves and continued working. For a while it was silent between us, which even though this was only my second day, already felt weird. As I examined some Riley's organs I glanced over at Cooper and cleared my throat.

He looked up at me grumpily.

"You're too quiet. It's weirding me out."

"I thought you wanted me to be quiet," he smirked.

"Not this quiet," I rolled my eyes.

"I'll talk to you, but only if you tell me more about Dr. Reid." He wiggled his brows.

"Fine," I responded, gritting my teeth, "what do you want to know?"

"What happened between you two? Yesterday after you left the kid was acting weird."

"It's uh," I chuckled nervously, "a very long story."

"I'm listening."

I let out a frustrated sigh and threw my head back. Secretly I hoped he was kidding, that he was just pushing my buttons to get a rise out of me. I closed my eyes for a couple of seconds, collecting my thoughts as I prayed he'd change his mind once it saw how strange it made me feel. When he didn't, I looked back down, giving him an unimpressed stare as I threw down my scalpel. "For backstory, my old team is very lovely, annoying, but lovely," I sighed, "and uh, Reid and I both had a, uh, mutual issue and eventually solved it by, um, hooking up."

"You were virgins?"

"Oh, my god! No!" I scrunched up my face, shaking my head. "No, we just hadn't done it in a while, you know?"

He laughed, nodding his head as he continued working.

"Anyway, we knew that if people found out we'd get teased so we kept it a secret and eventually broke things off. Instead of moving on though, we later realized we definitely liked each other."

"The sex was that good, huh?"

"Shut up," I mumbled, feeling my face grow hot.

"What? I'm just saying. That scrawny little guy must have a big di-"

I made a loud sound of disgust, closing my eyes. "Stop, please."

He huffed, rolling his eyes.

I thought about stopping, letting him fall silent again so I could continue working and stop revealing my personal life. My brain however, pushed me to keep talking. I told him about all the events leading up to my eventual forced resignation, along with the months I'd spent in London. He listened attentively, only making a couple of comments as I ran through the whole timeline. When I finished I felt good, realizing I hadn't really told anyone the whole truth before. Everyone knew bits and pieces, but Cooper was the first who knew my side of the entire story.

When I was done talking I got back to work, finishing up a couple of sections of Riley's body before stitching her back up. At that point, Cooper was doing the same. He finished up the last stitch with a sigh, throwing his tools aside before looking in direction and peeling off his gloves. "For a pair of doctors you sure are stupid," Cooper chuckled.

"Yeah, well, for someone with an IQ of 187, I agree, he's definitely an idiot."

"So are you," he added, "even though he's literally a humanized version of a stick bug, he's still a nice kid. I don't see him often, but when I do I don't hate his company."

"Dick, do you have the hots for Dr. Reid?" I wiggled my brows and stuck my tongue out jokingly, watching as he rolled his eyes.

"No, Riff-Raff, what I'm saying is, based on what you just told me that you two worked well together."

"Yeah, and?"

"Why'd you stop? Clearly you're still in love with the guy."

I opened my mouth to say something, but my brain stopped working. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why I stopped. I knew deep down commitment was something that scared me, but being with Reid didn't. Sure, it wasn't like we were talking about marriage and having kids, but the idea of being with him, while terrifying, still felt right. So why did I stop? Was it because the fear of became or much? Was it my job? Maybe a combination of the both?

"Hey," Cooper snapped his fingers in my face, causing me to jump and give him an annoyed look, "I get it, love's weird."

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"Obviously you're not ready to talk about it so I'll change the subject," he cleared his throat and wandered over to the desk. He grabbed a set of clipboards, handing one to me before placing his hand on the small of my back and ushering me towards the door. "I got one of the M.E.'s to clear out an office for you. I'll show you where it is so you can finish your report."

"Okay..."

As we left I grabbed my stuff, clutching it close to my chest, along with the clipboard as we walked down to the end of the hall and turned left. He grabbed the handle of the first door on the right, pushing it open before walking inside. "It's nothing special, but it's yours. If you wanna decorate it go ahead." He shrugged.

I narrowed my eyes, staring at the relatively average sized desk in front of me before looking back at him and raising my brow. "If I get an office does that mean I-"

"Don't let it get to your head," he cut me off.

I held back a smirk, nodding my head as I walked over to the desk and sat down. I twirled in my chair a couple of times, eventually catching myself as I grabbed the edge of the desk and turned back to face Cooper. "Thanks," I smiled, "for this, uh, and for listening to me."

"Don't mention it."

I nodded and threw my stuff on the desk. Almost immediately Cooper dismissed himself, claiming he had to finish a couple of things before Morgan Reid arrived. As he left, I turned to my paperwork, letting out an excited sigh as I pulled a pen out of my bag and got to work. For the most part, the work was relatively easy. Most of it was just reiterating what we'd found during our autopsy and writing down lots of notes. I sat there for a while though, thinking about the outcome of the possible information we'd uncovered. If there were two unsubs killing at the same time, what did that mean? Did they know each other? And if so, what was their game plan?

I tapped my pen against the tabletop, searching my brain for more answers until Cooper appeared at my doorway. He tapped his knuckles against the frame, clearing his throat. When I looked up he pointed to the hall with his thumb. "Muscles and Stick wanna talk to you."

I scoffed, shaking my head as I grabbed my clipboard and followed him out. "Stick, really?"

"Is that not good enough? Should I call him Noodles or something?"

As we walked through the exam room I laughed, watching as Reid and Morgan looked up curiously. I turned my attention to Reid, biting my lip as he stiffened and shoved his hands into the pockets of his slacks. I held back a small smile, leaning into Cooper. "Noodles is better," I whispered.

"Is there something you two would like to share with the class?" Morgan asked jokingly.

"Nope, definitely not," I responded, walking over to his side.

"Okay," Morgan nodded, giving Reid an eye roll. "So, what do we got?"

I told him what I told Hotch except with more detail. As I spoke I grabbed a couple pairs of gloves, handing them off to him and Reid before throwing mine on and walking over to the body. I pointed out each injury, listing off the notes I'd mentally taken about each, before moving onto the next. They both listened, nodding every so often to show they were paying attention.

"Two unsubs," Morgan sighed.

"Yup." I swallowed.

"Do you think they're working together?" Cooper asked.

"While partnerships between killers is rare it has potential," Reid responded, "given the timeline of each kill and how close the dumpsites were in proximately to one another I'd say it's more than likely."

I turned to Reid. "I don't think it's a conventional partnership, though. Aside from asphyxiation their methods are completely different."

"Could be a competition," Morgan shrugged, "both of them kill to impress the other."

Cooper blinked, shaking his head in disbelief. "Hold on, wait a minute. You're saying that two psychos are running around town killing people so that they can get an ego boost?"

Reid nodded.

"Jesus christ," Cooper muttered.

Morgan's phone ran from the pocket of his jeans. He sighed, pulling it out before glancing between the three of us and muttering a quick apology. He stepped out of the room, saying a quick hello as he disappeared into the hall.

Cooper cleared his throat, throwing his hand up towards it has he coughed and closed his eyes. "Excuse me, it, uh, appears I have something in my throat," he muttered. He turned on his heel and followed Morgan. I opened my mouth to say something, but before I could he was already gone. I sighed and turned to Reid who stared at the floor.

The silence between was so thick that you could hear a pin drop. Awkwardly, I licked my bottom lip and zoned out in his general direction. I stared at the buttons of his shirt, my eyes slowly trailing up to his neck, which poked out from the collar of his shirt. I felt my hands start to sweat as I examined the his skin. He always liked neck kisses.

"It's rude to stare, you know."

I blinked and turned away, feeling my face grow hot. "Sorry," I muttered.

He let out a heavy breath, adjusting his stance. As he moved I couldn't help, but take another peek at his face, which unfortunately was already looking my way. I quickly turned away again, this time staring at the floor as I wiped my hands on the inside of my pockets.

Thankfully, Morgan walked into the room, staring up from his phone to see the awkward sight in front of him. "Where's Cooper?"

"He left," Reid replied, rolling his eyes.

"Hotch says they got a lead on one of the guys. He's got a girl with him so he wants Cooper to stick around in case he's needed."

Cooper groaned from down the hall, storming over to the doorway. He leaned his head against the frame, closing his eyes as he rubbed his temples. "You agents are insufferable."

I laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Morgan clapped him on the shoulder, chuckling slightly before turning to Reid and nodding his head, "let's go."

Without hesitation Reid left the room, brushing past the two guys without a word. Morgan watched him walk out, giving me an eyebrow raise before waving goodbye and leaving. Cooper glared, shaking his head at the two of them. "Unbelievable."

"You do realize this is your job, right?"

"Yes, Riff-Raff, I do. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

I shrugged my shoulders realizing he was right. People hated their jobs all the time.

"Listen," he sighed, "thanks for your help today. As much as I hate to admit it Hotchner was right to get me to recruit you."

"Hotch is a smart guy." I smirked.

"Don't push it," he pointed at me threateningly, "now go home before I say fuck it and change my mind."

I raised my hands up defensively and left.