Later, there was one question Spencer Reid was never quite able to fully answer about the situation. How had he known when to act?

Looking back on everything that had happened, he chalked it up to experience with guns, and his instincts as an animal to know when something bad was about to happen to his mate. And when something about Diane Turner's posture shifted, something that gave away her twitching fingers pressed to the trigger of the gun, he put those instincts above his rational mind; he attacked.

He ran towards the two women and tackled Diane, pushing Maeve to the floor in time for the bullet to miss her head, instead puncturing directly through into his own.

A guttural scream ripped tgrough the air as Maeve howled in grief, scrambling over to his side and cradling his head in her lap. Her clothes were quickly painted red with his blood, leaking between her fingers and dripping onto the floor beneath them. Behind her, she heard several pairs of feet pounding into the room, only to stop short at the sight laid out before them.

Diane Turner was dead. And Spencer...

Maeve's crying became a startled scream as he suddenly drew in a sharp breath from beneath her. She hurriedly pressed her fingers against his neck, searching for the steady thrum of a heartbeat. She hardly realized Spencer's team had surrounded her. Agent Hotchner was shouting into his walkie talkie, demanding medics at the scene, and fast.

Finally, she found it; a pulse. It wasn't steady or strong, instead weak and feeble and with far too much time in between beats, but it was there. On his other side, a dark skinned man with his head shaved moved to turn the young doctor onto his back.

"Th-There's a pulse, I-I felt it, p-please, help him!" She shouted, uncaring that she had never met these people before. She knew them, though. Each and every one of them she knew frim Spencer's stories.

Aaron Hotchner, the serious looking man with short black hair standing beside the door. He was a single father to a sweet eight year old boy called Jack. He was their leader, and a strong one at that, but almost never showed emotion, lest his facade crack and his walls come crumbling down.

David Rossi, the eldest on their team, and one of the founders of the BAU. He was a man with, according to Spencer, too much money and not enough time. The senior was currently leaning on the other side of his colleague, holding back his own bout of tears.

Dr Alex Blake, the newest addition to their team. According to Spencer, she treated him like her own son. And now she stood crying at the edge of the scene, hands over her mouth as she attempted to calm herself down to no avail.

Derek Morgan, if anything Spencer's older and most protective brother. Who was in hysterics, attempting to get his little brother to respond to him in any way.

Jennifer Jareau, or JJ, a sister to Spencer in every way except blood. She'd always been there for him, but now she leaned against the wall, tilted her head up to the ceiling, and with tears pooling in her eyes, began muttering pleas for Spencer to live.

And Penelope Garcia, their eccentric technical analyst who would currently have no idea what was going on. She was most likely freaking out in her tiny office back in Quantico, Virgina, worried sick about what could be happening.

Maeve reached over to grab his hand, squeezing it tightly in her own, tears blurring her vision. "Spencer, please hang on on, please..." And then she was being pushed away by the paramedics who began their examination of Spencer's condition. Maeve was too distraught to listen to what they were saying, just watching in hysterics as they got him onto a stretcher and loaded him into the back of the ambulance. Derek Morgan chased after them automatically, climbing in behimd thrm just in time as they sped away to the hospital, sirens blaring and lights flashing.

Maeve collapsed in the door frame, her legs suddenly unable to support her weight. Someone behind het caught her before she could fall, and she looked up into the water blue eyes of Jennifer Jareau.

"It'll be okay." She said, and Maeve knew she was assuring herself just as much as Maeve. "He'll live. Spencer will get through this. He has to."

And there was that very emotional roller coaster of a first chapter! Whoo! Okay, so, I'm sorry if the scene was inaccurate, I haven't watched Zugzwang in a while and right now I have no way to do so, so I had to improvise a bit. I hope you don't mind. And I hope you like this one! PS: This should be relatively short, maybe 10-15 chapters at the most, I'd say.