Please Stay | A Dr Spencer Reid fanfic

Chapter 41- Reckless Reid

"Argh." Spencer threw his pen down hard on the table.

Everyone within twenty feet of him were startled.

"How can I be a certified genius. Mensa may as well take away my accreditation now." He plunged his eyes into his palms.

JJ silently rose from her seat and knelt down beside Spencer. JJ's eyes flickered to Penelope. Penelope was craning her neck over the makeshift computer set up that had created with her equipment. Penelope's face was crumbling in distraught.

"Spence. I know nothing I say will help right now," JJ grimaced.

"Then don't." Spencer got up of the floor. He was seething and venomous.

"I'm going to ignore the aggression under these circumstances," JJ deliberated. "Spence, feeling sorry for yourself is not going to help the five victims we are trying to save."

"Don't call her that," he gritted his teeth.

"You have to. You are so focused on finding Gia, that your mind is getting clouded. Treat it like another case."

Spencer hesitated. "I can't."

"Why is that?"

"When we have a case normally, I only know what I'm told or what I profile. I know too much about them now. Noah's mother is a book curator. Anna was going to take trip to her husband's childhood home. Jack was going to Arizona to freeclimb in the Grand Canyon. Evie told Noah she would drive with him to California because she likes him. Like, likes him likes. That's all I can see when I see their pictures up on the board."

"What about when you see her?" JJ pointed to the picture of Gia that was pinned to the board.

Spencer sharply inhaled, rubbing his eyes. "You're right. I need a new perspective."

Spencer grabbed his jacket.

"Where are you going?" JJ was concerned.

"To see the bigger picture," Spencer announced frantically.

Spencer stood with his back pressed against the wall outside the New York FBI field office. The crisp winter air swirled around him. He waited until he saw Hotch and Rossi leave in an SUV. He hailed a cab and followed them.

Twenty minutes later the SUV pulled up to a safe house. Spence asked the cab driver to pull up further up the street. He looked up and analysed the windows of the apartment building. His gaze rested on an apartment on the third floor. The curtains were drawn. It was high enough from street level to get a good vantage point, but low enough to get easy escape through the fire escape stairs.

Spencer took the elevator to the third floor, flashing his credentials to agent's stationed along the corridor.

Spencer arrived at the apartment door and knocked three times.

Hotch opened the door, his right-hand readying to remove his firearm. "Reid! What are you doing here?"

Spencer pushed past him. Hotch slammed the door shut. "Reid this is reckless."

"Where is he?" Spencer's tone was dismissive.

"Dave is talking to him." Hotch tried to reason with Spencer.

Spencer ignored him and followed the faint sound of voices from a room at the back of the apartment. He leaned against the door frame listening to Lochlan answering Rossi's questions.

"We had checked in our bags. Gia wanted to make a call before we went through security. She said that cell signal is a bit shaky inside."

"Who was she calling?" Rossi asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I assume it was Dr Reid.'

"Dr Spencer Reid," Rossi confirmed.

Lochlan nodded. "But before she did her phone rang and she answered it. I don't know who it was."

"What were you doing while she was taking her calls?"

"I was getting her a drink. She said she really wanted a hot chocolate, with whipped cream and caramel syrup." Lochlan's eyes dropped to the floor uncomfortably. "I thought I would get her one while she was calling Dr Reid. I wanted to give her some privacy."

"Why did you feel the need to do that?" Rossi asked.

"She is quite fond of him. Fond is probably an understatement." Lochlan's eyes slide to Spencer at the door. "I have never been your biggest fan Dr Reid, but I know that when G would speak to you all her problems seemed to fade away, even if it was only for a short amount of time." Rossi turned in his seat to see that Lochlan was talking directly to Spencer. "I was watching her. I had my eyes on her the whole time. I turned only for a second to grab the drinks from the counter. When I turned back, she was..." Remorse consumed Lochlan. He sniffled trying to mask his emotions. "I ran to the spot where she was taking the call and that when I saw two men carrying Gia into the back seat of a car. She was limp. I assume they sedated her. I went after them. I alerted Agent Hunter and Carrigan. That's when three others restrained me, and someone shot at the agents. That's the last thing I can recall. Next think I know, I'm in an ambulance. I was too relaxed. We were all too relaxed. We thought we had beat it all. We had made it to the end of the trip with almost no hiccups."

"What problems?' Spencer asked. Lochlan was confused by the question. "What problems did I help fade away?"

"Oh. Well, where do I start. We had threats from multiple terrorist groups. Potential bounties from some of the big Pharma companies. Stalker, hackers, religious groups saying they were interfering with God's work. You name it they had it."

"She never mentioned it."

"As flamboyant as Gia is, she hates dropping her problems on other people."

"I can see that," Spencer whispered. He pondered what Lochlan had said. "Why did they leave you?"

Lochlan was taken aback.

"Sorry, that's not how I meant for it to come out. It just would have been easier to take you too. You are the one that alerted the agents. Whoever took Gia, but know that by hurting agents the whole agency would come down on them harder. On top of that you are the only person aside from the Gia, Anna, Evie, Noah and Jack that had intimate knowledge of their projects, security and their lives. By leaving you, they have given us a wild card. They have left behind a valuable asset. That part of their plan appears... disorganised. And the rest of their plan is organised. Something is off here. We are missing something."

"I agree," Rossi interrupted. "Did you get anywhere with the message?"

Spencer frowned.

"Prentiss and Morgan have been with the protection detail. Apparently, all the threat potentials they had flagged have been cleared."

"I'm not surprised. The people that were threatening them would all want to be known. Maybe not the big Pharma but the rest would take credit. The message we saw sounded more like a manifesto. They were taking claim or trying to market themselves." Spencer's brows furrowed deeper.

Just then Hotch signalled for Rossi from behind Spencer.

"I'll be right back," Rossi left the room, leaving Lochlan and Spencer alone.

"I don't know definitively what she was going to say you on the phone," Lochlan's voice was a whisper. "She was going to take a teaching position at Georgetown to be closer to you. She didn't explicitly tell me, but I'm sure that she thinks she loves you."

Spencer wandered over to the window, hiding his face from Lochlan as a tear trickled down his cheek.