Innocent: Spencer Reid ✔️

{27} When the Party's Over

t w e n t y s e v e n . o n e
S p e n c e r
1 8 7

"Hey there tough guy, told you you'd see me again." Avery giggles, leaning in to kiss me on the mouth, back in my kitchen.

"Am I dead? God am I in Heaven?" I say in disbelief. Avery pauses, her mouth inches away from mine until she bursts out into a fresh fit of giggles. "Do you think I'm dead?"

"Oh God no you're not. Well, you could be, I don't know. Other me did see a bullet go through your big brain." Avery mimics pointing a gun at my head like a toddler as she pretends to fire a bullet through my head. "There isn't a bullet wound though. I guess Heaven must clear all wounds." I lift up my shirt and expect to see shallow scratches and bruises but there aren't none there, and even Avery looks surprised.

"Maybe they still hurt?" She suggests before pressing her cold fingertips against my stomach where my cuts and bruises should be. It aches like my bruises and so I back away, wincing. "No you are certainly not dead or in Heaven." Avery gives me a bright smile and pulls my shirt back down.

"Do you think I'm dead?" I ask, hoping and looking for a sensible answer.

"Me personally? No. Me in real life? Yes. I mean I did see you get your 'brains blown out' on camera." She gestures quotation marks in the air with her fingers and gives me another signature smile.

"Real life?" I ask, my heart starts beating faster every second she stays quiet. Am I in hell?

"No, Spence you have not been a bad boy you are not in hell. Doctor with your IQ of 187, you should know this, between us right now isn't real. It's all your imagination. Well, maybe. It's your consciousness, so I am very much real and my heart is very much beating." Avery grabs my hand and places it above her left breast where her heart is beating in perfect rhythm. "Practically perfect in every way." She grins up at me, proud. Yeah, you are. I recognise the saying from Mary Poppins, and remember exactly when she watched that film.

"So I'm alive, but you and the team think I'm dead because Joshua and Thomas faked my death? Why would they do that?"

"I don't know, psychological torture maybe. To mess with us and you and me - which basically falls into the us category." She rambles and as she does so, she brings a smile onto my face.

"Are you coming to find me still?" I cut her off from rambling and ask.

"That is a funny question." She laughs nervously, "well, you see Spencer...real me and the team think you're dead so we're just going to wait until Thomas and Joshua dump your body somewhere." Avery's confident smile has turned shy. They aren't coming.

"But what if they don't dump my body?" I utter the stupid question.

"Well 187 of course they won't dump your body, because your heart is very much alive and beating too. Although, I do hope you know that I wouldn't rest until I found your body." She giggles cockily, pushing her index finger against my nose. I love feeling close to her even though I know this won't last. "Which is why I come to my next bit of helpful information Doctor. Because you're half dead, you need to make it obvious you're not dead dead."

"Half dead? Am I dying?" I'm never going to be able to tell Avery I'm sorry if I die right now.

"No, I like to call it the Emily Dead because - yeah, I heard about that little incident when she had to fake her death. We think you're dead, but you're not, so we need to know that so we can look for you." She explains, "I still can't believe they thought of the great idea to drug you and pretend you died. I mean...seriously? That's low."