I do not own Criminal Minds.

To regular Readers: Never for a single day did I forget about this story. I kept putting off working on it because I thought it would get in the way of my schoolwork. School doesn't ever really end and I want to reclaim something I really enjoy.

I made some changes and rather than delete the story and lose the followers. I have been making the changes by reposting the chapters and adding Ch. 22 again. I'll have a brand-new chapter up soon. Biggest change: I got rid of Elle Greenaway and replaced with red-head named Erica Dallen. Her contribution up until this chapter is minimal though I suggest rereading Ch. 2 and 19 to learn more about her. Oh and definitely reread 18. I completely changed that one.

Reminder: This story is set BEFORE the premier of season 8. Not long after J.J.'s wedding.

To those of you who are new to this story: Welcome! I have been trying cleaning things up a bit. If you discovered show recently then you are in for a ride through seven seasons! If you are craving something new relating to the show that will take longer to read than the actual length of the show, this is one of the stories worthy of a glance! (I hope.)

Things to know about the story: I'll do my best to research Las Vegas. The timeline may be a little off as I'm still working out the kinks. I'll be researching comas as I continue to write. The college featured in the story is absolutely fictional.

Rated T for Violence

A World that Forgot Spencer Reid

Prologue

Reid had never seen it rain so hard in Las Vegas. On any other night he would have found this meteorological phenomenon fascinating, but tonight he was tired. He closed his eyes and rested his head against the greasy felt material that covered the interior of the taxi cab, absorbing the sound of the endless drumming of the raindrops.

It had been an exhausting three days. The reports from his mother's doctors had been growing increasingly frantic for the past two weeks. After the last report of an incident where his mother had violently attacked a nurse, Reid told Hotch he needed to take a few personal days to manage his mother's treatment.

Reid rubbed his eyes, it all felt fruitless. His mother had lost the ability to maintain any grip on reality. She didn't seem to recognize him anymore. He had to agree with the doctor's recommendation to increase her sedative medications. The last thing she said to him as he walked away was scream "traitor!" as the nurses tried to give her a set of injections. He almost whimpered aloud at the thought of this memory.

He suddenly opened his eyes and became aware of his surroundings. He should have been at the airport by now. He looked through the rain-splattered window and noticed how dim the lights were. This was the wrong section of town.

He tapped the cab window. "Sir, we're in the wrong area. The airport is north of here!"

The driver, an aging white-haired man in his mid-sixties, stopped the cab in the middle of the street. The man had a grim look on his face as he turned around and opened the window. "I'm sorry but this is your stop Mr. Reid."

Panic began to set in. "What? What do you mean-"

The man put a gun through the window. "Leave now please," he said, his voice shaking.

It didn't take long to put things together. "Look whatever they're paying you to leave me here, I can give you twice as much-"

"LEAVE!" he screamed.

He quickly unfastened his seatbelt and pushed out of the cab. He stumbled to the ground as the cab sped off with the passenger door flapping and his luggage locked in the trunk. Reid almost felt the sorry for the man. He wasn't a killer, just someone forced into a very desperate situation. But not nearly as desperate as the one he was in right now.

He was already drenched to the bone when he got to his feet. He was a lone un-armed man in a neighborhood with one of the highest violent crime incident reports in the city. He cursed himself for not paying attention to where the cab was going. He completely terrified now.

Reid stared around for streets signs. The rain was pouring down so hard he could barely see the street lights. He pulled out his phone as began to walk across the poorly-patched street. His fingers were numb as he began dial through the menu for another cab company.

Suddenly the roar of a powerful engine echoed through the vacant street. Reid could barely react as the high beams of the black BMW blinded him. The last thing he remembered was hitting the speed dial for Morgan as the car slammed into him.

Chapter 1

Reid let out a weak shout as he woke up. He noticed his wrists were in padded restraints attached to a hospital bed. There were tubes laced around his arms and there was an oxygen tube in his nose. Something felt very wrong. He glanced at his right wrist bracelet and a feeling of a hysteria set in.

"Mr. Reid, you're awake!" a mousey young nurse shouted as she came into the room. She looked genuinely shocked, which alarmed him even more. "Doctor Ruckman is just down the hall. I'll call him immediately. Welcome back," she added nervously as she dashed out of the room.

Reid then noticed that he wasn't alone in the room. Judging from what he could see of the length, the room appeared to be very wide and divided by curtains as partitions. He heard the faint beeping of the monitors in the beds next to him.

Something else felt wrong as he took in how his body was reacting. He didn't feel the slight twist of discomfort when he moved the leg that had been shot. His breathing also felt more normal than it had been in a long time, as if his lungs hadn't been weakened by the anthrax exposure. He was now trying very not to scream out loud in confusion.

"Well, I have to say this is a first for me Mr. Reid," a handsome man in his early forties with an expensive shirt and tie visible under his white coat. "I have never had a patient recover from such a lengthy coma."

Reid felt a strong desire to hit the man for his lack of proper conduct. But he had more pressing concerns. "How long was I out?" he asked croakily. It felt as if his he hadn't used his voice in a long time.

The bravado in the doctor's voice weakened as he approached him and pulled out a stethoscope. "Mr. Reid you suffered severe head trauma when you were hit by an on-coming car. Do you remember anything of that?" he said as he put the bell to his chest beneath his gown.

He shook as hard as he could to the jerk the device away. "How long was I out?" he demanded, proper medical terminology failing him.

A pained full look came across the man's face. "It will be ten years next Thursday."

"What," he gasped. This didn't make sense. "What is year is it?"

"It is May 26, 2012. Your file indicates that you were en route to the McCarran International Airport to catch of flight to Washington D.C," he said dolefully.

"To do what" Reid asked impatiently. He knew there was more. "Tell me!"

"Where you were going to meet with a Jason Gideon from the FBI to start the agent application process," he said. His eyes turned glassy. "I'm so sorry," he whispered and took a step back.

Reid fell back and closed his eyes, trying to force his eyes to not produce tears. Everything felt wrong. Horribly wrong. He was suffering some sort of psychotic break. Either that or he had imagined everything that happened over the past ten years. Or the fact that he hadn't been conscious for the last ten years was the delusion. He really couldn't tell which was which.