You and Them (Spencer Reid)

The day you met Dr Spencer Reid was the day you found out your sister had been murdered. The moment he told you, your (Eye Colour) eyes had watered up and your heart had shattered.

You were fresh out of college. Being the smart one of three you had just finished getting your third degree. You had majored in Biology, Physiology and the final one was Chemistry. Your dreams of becoming a doctor were getting closer and closer. Yet the day he and his friend turned up on your doorstep had broken that dream.

You invited the people who had worked on the case to the funeral. It was a small affair due to the lack of family and the fact that you didn't know any of your sister's friends. You openly wept. You felt the tears stream down your face. You also felt a hand hover awkwardly over your shoulder… The presence of it faded and you had never felt so lonely in your life. Even your older brother never showed up. It was just you. The agents. And her kids and husband. Oh god… The kids… The two little girls that your sister had left behind. They would have to grow up without their mother. Poor girls.

You didn't weep for the loss of your sister. You wept for her sadness she would surely feel. You wept for her children and husband. And finally. You wept for yourself. You selfishly wept just to make you feel something other than numbness.

''

You had a major career change in the last year. You went from doctor to detective. Passed all the courses and exam with flying colours of course. It had nothing to do with your sister's murderer. They had caught him. You did it so you could try and stop other families from feeling this way. You still felt the numbness that had swallowed you whole. Like jumping into a pool when you first get there. The coldness that surrounds you. It felt like this. Except you would be dragged deeper and deeper. Further under the surface each day. You felt you had betrayed your sister and this was the only way to redemption. You tried to forget everything when working on a case.

You would forgo emotions. Only using them when the time came. For example, the time you had to break the news to Ms Bayer that her husband was in a car crash. The very one that was caused by the robber you were chasing. He and Mr Bayer were the only victims. Both had died on impact. Crime rates had dropped since you had joined the force. You prided yourself on that. So when a murder left some of the other detectives out if their depth you tried to step in. Tried being the key word. They wouldn't let you take over, as it was the same circumstance as your sister's murder.

When you tried to tell them that you could do it they ignored you. They said your emotions would get in the way and would hinder the case. This was the last straw. You handed over you badge and gun.
"Catch me if you can."

You left without another word. They knew you would do this, yet they made no move to stop you from leaving. Before you could open the door yourself and group of FBI agents stepped through and almost made you topple over.
"Watch it!" You hissed. They looked familiar but you couldn't put names to faces so you stormed out of the police station and towards your home. You let the moment lie for the rest of the day and night. Come morning you would take matters into your own hands.

''
Your alarm woke you at 7:15 in the morning. You didn't have to go to work as you handed in your badge. So you got up slowly taking your time. You made yourself pancakes, using your sister's recipe.

You left your house at 8:00 and drove to the freshest crime scene. No one was in sight yet the door was slightly ajar. You pulled your Colt M1911 from the holster. You counted to five in your head. You kick the door open the rest of the way and pressed you back against it while holding your gun in front of you.
"Freeze!" The man in front you dropped the folder he was holding and he held his hands up. "Turn to face me! Slowly!" You learnt the hard way to say exactly what you meant. You made the mistake on your first day. You shouted at a suspect to turn around. You didn't specify a speed so the man turned quickly and shot you. Lucky he had bad aim and the bullet grazed your arm. You caught him in the end but had obtained an unnecessary wound.

Back to the matter at hand… The man you were currently holding a gun to turned slowly and faced you. He was one of the agents that had pushed past you the day before.
"You… You're one of them."
"O-one o-of who?" You put your gun back into its holster.
"An agent." His eyes widened.
"You're that detective we were warned about…" So they knew.
"Yeah. Now you know that. What are you going to do about it?"
"He'll properly do nothing. I on the other hand." A new voice came and broke the eye contact you had with the first agent. You turned to see other man holding a gun.
"Whoa!" You looked him right in the eye.
"Detective (Last Name) you are under arrest for trespassing. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do may harm your defence.

''
Hotch, Gideon and Elle were reviewing briefs and trying to find a link in the victimology when they heard a commotion. You were trying to make as much noise as possible to disrupt workflow as you were dragged by your arms to an interrogation room. You were handcuffed and manhandled. Now you knew how the criminals you caught felt… You were pushed into the single chair that was located in the room.
"Watch it! I bruise like a peach!" You yelled at the man that had pretty much threw you in the chair.
"Careful Sunshine. You may harm your defence."
"Morgan. I don't think you should anger her…"
"What makes you say that?"
"Well. Some of the other officers seem to be either cowering or fleeing…" Morgan turned to look at Reid who was standing by the open door.
"Come again." He glanced to you and turned to walk to the door. He looked out into the office and true to what Reid said, people were either leaving the building or trying to put as many objects between the interrogation room door and them. You started to laugh hysterically. The other officers knew your back-story. They also knew of the occasional meltdowns you sometime had. Ones where you would get really angry and threw things around and generally tore things up, then get you would feel really guilty and felt bad so you would cry for some stupid reason and wouldn't stop crying for a good hour or two. Then there were the ones where you would laugh hysterically and became really bitter. There was one thing that no one knew. Not even your shrink knew this little secret.

You still had the nightmare…

''

Every time you had this nightmare it would replay the moment they let you see your sister. In the nightmare you would walk to the slab that your sister laid upon. You would gingerly try to stroke her hair like she did for you when you were sick or upset. Yet even before you got close she would sit up and smile. Blood would flow form her mouth and sometimes she would cry tears of blood, she would always say the same thing.
"Why couldn't you protect me? Why didn't you try harder?" Her voice. It was like yesterday since she had last spoke to you. You could hear her everywhere. At crime scenes, while you were shopping, even when you tried to settle down with someone you could hear her list off all the bad qualities the man had. You couldn't bear it anymore so you kept yourself to yourself. Now it was only when you spoke to the other offices or in your dream that you heard her.

''

Your laughs became louder and more maniacal.
"She's gone! They're all gone! And there's not a damn thing any of us can do!" Gideon walked into the room and looked at you in pity. You saw this and began to laugh. "Don't look at me in pity. I don't deserve it…"
"And why do you think you don't deserve pity?"
"Don't do that. You're a profiler. Mr Jason Gideon. The famous profiler. So don't start profiling me."
"I've already profiled you. The first time we met. I had you profiled and all figured out."
"Wow. That was fast. Just a quick glace? You're as good as they say…" Gideon smirked and walked away; it was like he knew something…
"Start talking Sunshine. Tell us why you drew a gun on Pretty Boy here."
"Well he was at a crime scene. So… Yeah. That's why."
"Okay. But why were you at the crime scene Detective. You handed in your badge." You explained everything you went as far as to tell them about your sister. Not the whole funeral thing. Just that she was murdered in this same way.
Hotch appeared at the doorway.
"I thought you looked familiar. We solved your sister's case. We're sorry." You looked at him in disbelieve.
"I'm sorry. But none of you look familiar to me."
"Understandable. You didn't speak to us much. You also became quite distant."
"Sorry."
"You don't need to apologize."
"But I forgot the people who made me the person I am now. A detective. I'm hoping to be one of you guys soon." The youngest man in the room, which would have been Reid, turned to look at you.
"Why? Why the sudden change? You wanted to be a doctor. A medical professional! Why!"
"Reid."  Morgan held his arm in front of Reid as he slowly advanced forward with his rant. You looked at him and let out a short, clipped laugh.
"Why? To try and stop monsters. I want to redeem myself. It was my fault my sister died that day. I will stop whoever tries to bring sadness to a family." The three men looked to you. Hotch smiled his small smile.
"Want to help us?"
"I thought you'd never ask."

''

You found a link between the victims easily as you knew most of the women who had been murdered. They all had (Hair Colour) and (Eye Colour). You were a perfect match. You had offered to be bait. But you were declined that chance as they didn't know when or where he got his victims. You all were talking and discussing things when a low level officer ran in.
"There's another body."
You all looked at each other. At the speed of light you all practically ran to the cars.

You, Morgan and Gideon were in one car. Hotch, Elle and Reid in the other. You climb into the driving seat and turned to the passengers in the car.
"Buckle up." Morgan looked at you with confusion written all other his face.
"You know how to drive right?"
"Push a pedal, steer and change gear every so often. How hard can it be?" With this you pulled away. Speeding. When you turned corners you were going so fast that Gideon and Morgan were thrown into the side of the car. You three were the first ones there. Which in a sense was a no brainer as you broke the speed limit. Gideon and Morgan got out of the car looking visibly shaken and stood on shaky legs. You ran to the door and asked the officer where the body was.
"Sorry, ma'am. No reporters or members of the public." You gave what had to be your best poker face.
"Shut up dumbass. It's me Detective (Last Name). You should know me Steven. After all… I stopped your son from getting that prison sentence last year." Steven looked at you with slight fear. You smiled. "Now. Where is the body?"
"Upstairs. Third door. Left." You smiled sweetly.
"Was that so hard?" With that you ran to the crime scene.

You went into what you would call Batman Mode. Or Sherlock mode depending on how you were feeling and noticing. But this time it had to be Sherlock mode, as you needed your medical expertise with you. The officers in the room looked at you. They all knew you. You laughed a little to yourself.
"Just call me Dr Watson." You winked and some of them rolled their eyes while some sighed and left the room. You walked slowly to the body in a way that looked like you were a lioness stalking her prey. Morgan and Gideon walked in. Morgan was the first to react.
"What. Are. You. Doing." You gave him a quick glace.
"Trying to walk like the unsub. I could see from the door that see was struck from behind."
"You're a detective. How could you know that?"
"I wasn't always a detective." Gideon gave a chuckle.
"No. (First Name) here was finishing her last semester as a med student when her sister was killed. We talked through letters, for a while. She kept up her dream for a good year or so but the call to be a detective got too strong." He turned to look you in the eye. "You would have made a good doctor as well."
You smiled shyly. Then turned back to examine the body. You could tell by the body that whoever was doing this was a copycat. Even if the other guy was rotting away on Death Row wasn't a big enough clue.
"Copycat. The original was careful. This guy wasn't. He tied the rope too tightly and he gripped the woman's arm too tightly as well. He left fingerprints on this one. I'll have to look at the other bodies to see if there were fingerprints on the others too. You carefully looked at the woman's hands. That was new.
"There's a tattoo here."

''

You stood at the board wondering why that tattoo looked so familiar. You stood there for what seemed like hours. It properly had been.

Reid was walking through the cubicles to the conference room they were set up in. Before he walked through the door he spotted you standing there staring at the board. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"Shouldn't you be at home with someone?" He winced internally.

You jumped when someone suddenly spoke to you. It was Reid. You smiled at him.
"There's no one at home for me to go to. I mostly sleep here anyway. But I guess you profilers already knew that." You chuckled softly. "You read people for a living. And you've properly searched my house." You were right. They had.
"We did. It was so clean. Like no one lived there. It was pretty much empty. No pictures. Not even personal things like ordainments. It was just furniture. Only things that needed to be there for someone to live. But even though you have things you can use to live and survive. Why live here? In the station."
"It's a long story."
"I've got time…"
"When my sister died I moved in the house she owned because her husband couldn't keep up with the payments. My parents left us a lot of money when they passed away me and my sister stayed close but our brother moved as far as he could as fast as he could. He didn't even turn up for the funeral. My sister loved family. She loved being the stay at home trophy wife… I couldn't do it. I loved her but I avoided family like the plague. When she had the twins I couldn't help but visit more often. I loved them. They had my sister's eyes. Her hair. Her everything. They then became her world. She no longer had time for me. But you know what? I treated them like they were royalty. But at her funeral they changed. One for, to be honest, the better, but her sister… Well, she didn't exactly take a turn for the worse she just blamed herself for not noticing something was wrong. But nowadays you wouldn't believe they were twins." Reid looked at you. "I saw them the other day… They." You started to cry lightly. "They were so much older than I remembered… They looked even more like her." You started to cry harder. Soon you felt the hand over your shoulder again. You were reminded of the funeral.
"Reid?"
"Yeah?"
"You did the same thing at the funeral…" He looked at you in confusion.
"I did?"
"Yeah. Let's do something different." He blushed. You laughed loudly and pulled him into a hug. You pulled back to see he was still blushing. "You my friend have a dirty mind." You both looked at each other. Then you both started to laugh. You hadn't laughed like that in years.
"What about you Reid? Don't you have anyone?" He chuckled sadly to himself.
"Who would want someone like me?" You grabbed his shoulders as he tried to turn away.
"You listen here Spencer Reid. You are perfect and if anybody tells you otherwise then they are wrong. They're just jealous. You are absolutely perfect!" He looked at you with wide eyes. You looked back your best 'I think I know where this is going should I do it or should I back off now' face. You faintly heard your sister's voice. She was getting louder. But instead of telling you about his flaws she was simply yelling.
"KISS HIM! DO IT!" So you did. You both pulled away slowly afterwards. You open your eyes only to see pools of cinnamon. You panicked.
"I'm sorry. I'll see you tomorrow." With that you ran out of the building and didn't stop until you were in your house. You tried to get more air into your lungs as you breathed heavily. If you thought that was scary then you should have waited until the next day to make the final call. Because compared to tomorrow? That was a sodding walk in the park…

''

Hotch walked into the conference room. You all were seated and ready.
"We've given the police a profile, yet no-one has seen or heard of a guy like it. Have we got it wrong?" You spoke up.
"You said it yourself Hotch. He's too good. He knows our next move before we even do. Why don't we bait him? We know the place, yet because of how busy it is we can't get him. That's why I should be bait." Reid stood suddenly.
"No. No way. What if we don't get there in time or he kills you on the spot?"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take."
"Well it's one I'm not!" The room went deadly silent. You looked at Spencer in shock. Everyone looked at him in shock to be honest. You recovered quickly.
"Well it's my life. And you, Dr Reid don't have a damn say in what I do." You turned to Hotch. "I'll do it.

''

You and Elle were dressed up to go clubbing. Morgan was dressed as a bouncer, Hotch was dressed up in a chauffeur, Gideon was left in the security box watching the tiny screen that showed whatever the cameras saw and Reid was the bartender. Surprising the others and you when he pulled of the tricks when mixing cocktails. But to be fair the kid did grow up in Vegas… You and Elle pass Morgan while you winked at him. He chuckled and went back to working the door. He was on the look out for anyone shifty. You had found the unsub but he had no last known address so the next best thing was to lure him out. If he even came close to the club, Morgan was to arrest him. You and Elle were dancing. Both of you were enjoying yourselves. You hadn't had this much fun in a while. You and Elle was singing and dancing along to Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen when a man came over to you.
"Hey. How about me and you get a drink?" You looked Elle in the eye, who gave you a slight nod.
"Okay." You smiled. You both walked to the bar and waited. Reid finally saw you and smiled but as soon as he laid eyes on the man you were with his smile dropped. That was the guy.

''

The man you were with was the unsub. The only ones who didn't know were you and Elle. You didn't know so you didn't react subconsciously when and if you saw him. But Reid knew. And inside? He was panicking… He had to tell you somehow. Wait… The man put something in your drink while you weren't looking. Reid rushed about making you a new one and managed to swap it with the drugged one while both of you weren't looking. You turned back, and stared at it before deciding it was safe. The man smiled as you drank. It was like he knew something… He whispered something repulsive in your ear. You tried to decline nicely but he wasn't happy about that. He backhanded you across the face yet before any one could react you went into ninja mode. You knew those karate lessons would come in handy one day. You blocked his next slap. You aimed for the neck and chest. You managed to catch off guard and caught him dead centre in his chest. He spluttered a bit and you kicked the side of his head to knock him out. You were breathing heavily when Morgan, Gideon and Reid appeared at your side. You looked around for Elle. You couldn't see her so you rang Hotch. As soon as you heard the phone being picked up you started to talk.
"Elle's gone. I can't see her." You started to panic a little. What happened if the unsub took her instead? You would never forgive yourself. Just before you could panic more, Hotch's voice came through the speaker.
"She's fine. She came outside to let Morgan know that you were with someone. She's with me now." You sighed with relief. You laughed a little.
"Tell her she gave me a heart attack. She shouldn't worry someone like me." Hotch chuckled and hung up. You turned to see Reid running towards you.
"(First Name)! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Reid."
"A-are you sure?"
"Positive."
"T-that… That's good." You could hear your sister again.
"Kiss him again and marry the guy. He's perfect for you Baby Girl." You slowly closed the gap between you and Reid. He began to blush. You slowly pulled on his waistcoat uniform to bring your lips together in a passionate kiss. You both smiled into it and it intensified. Morgan cleared his throat and you both turned to look at him. Of course by this point both of you were blushing quite harshly.
"Okay Lovebirds we've got it here. Go have a real date." He winked and walked away. You looked at your phone. Then to Reid.
"Well. It's 9:30pm. We're both in a way dressed up. How about pizza? I know this great place." Reid smiled. Sure. Lead the way."

Epilogue!
"Andrea! Your breakfast is ready!" You and Spencer had settled down and had four kids. You had the house with the white picket fence. The minivan was parked out front. Spencer was currently in California solving a third degree murder. Doesn't sound very grand but considering all the doors and windows were locked from the inside and it was clear it wasn't a suicide. Well. That was a whole new ball game.

The phone started to ring.
"Callum! Could you get that please?" You heard your son pick up the phone.
"What do you want?" You mouthed at him to be polite but he turned at the last minute.
"Dad? Dad! How's it going? What are doing? What's happened? Is it a puzzle? Can I help?" You could just tell where he was going to end up doing when he was older... It was clear as day. You called to your youngest.
"Daisy! If you and Andrea are done with hair and make-up could you at least have some food before you go?" You heard confirmation from your two girls. They ran down the stairs and grab a bit of toast you had left in the toaster. Daisy then ran out of the door with toast hanging from her mouth. She went to school on her skateboard. Yeah. Hair and light make-up was still important to her. You sighed. A car horn was heard from outside.
"Ben! Carpool!" Your eldest boy was already in the police force choosing to stay home and watch over you all. It was sweet really. Andrea plonked herself down at the table and stole a bit of your toast
"You know if I wasn't your mother and loved you I would not have hesitated to take that bit of toast from you by force."
"Well it's a good job you are and do then." You laughed. Then remembered.
"Callum! Phone. Andrea. You have school. I'm sure your father will call later." You heard a groan and saw from the corner of your eye Callum giving the phone to Andrea. You then proceeded to walk to the front door to see Callum's friend stop at the end of your drive.
"My, My Mrs Reid. You look as lovely as ever
"Still married Gabe
"I'm sure Mr Reid would understand! After all... Our love for each is undeniable!"
"Get you and Callum to school on time and I'll think about it Gabe!"
"Done and done Mrs Reid! Hurry up Cal!" Callum emerged from the back gate with his bike. You smiled.
"Bye boys! Be safe!" They waved to you as they left. You entered your home and took the phone from Andrea.
"Miss me?"
"Twenty four, seven. You're not leaving me for Gabe are you? I don't think I could handle it." You both laughed at that little joke."
"Staying safe?"
"Of course."
"Love you."
"Love you more." You giggled with a smile like a schoolgirl talking to your first crush. This always happened if Spencer wasn't there. He would phone every chance he'd get. And you would answer regardless. After all. He was he who caught you the first time you had ever fell. And he'd do it again in a heartbeat. You talked some more before he had to hang up. You turned to your eldest child.
"If you ever find a man like your father. Keep him on a leash. Because if you miss the first chance. The likelihood of you ever getting a second one is slim." She smiled.
"If I ever found a man like dad. Well. That would be a fairytale." You laughed softly.
"Fairytales can happen. I'm living one now..."