This is my entry for Round Two of ilovetvalot's Fanfic Challenge 2010. My Assigned Pairing: JJ/ Reid. My Film Prompt: Remember Me (Hence the title)
Right I now realise I'm really glad I took this upon myself! Definitely wasn't as hard as I thought it would be... still a little worried I've not fully captured the pair but hey, that was the idea for this right? To try a new thing...
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Remember Me -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
When Jennifer Jareau looked at her team she could never envisage one of them dying. It was probably her most incomprehensible thought. It was a must never happen moment but right at that moment she realised she'd only blocked out the haunting truth.
She looked at the red staining his lips as his heart, that she'd come to love, began pumping harder to survive the bullet wound. The beauty of the crimson telling her it was only a matter of breaths now. She wouldn't have a life time to flirt and tease and fall even deeper in love. She wasn't going to get the time to tell Spencer Reid that she was unashamedly in love with him. She wasn't going to get the time to make him realise the blunt fact of the lock around her heart.
She kept a hand on the wound, the blood drowning it. Her other hand shakily ran over his head, wiping away stray strands of hair, removing the mini beads of sweat as he began to enter shock. She was merely trying to keep him looking at her, trying to make him hold on with every ebb of energy he still held. She didn't want to know she was fighting a losing battle. She didn't want to believe that this would be it.
"Please hold on." JJ sobbed at him as her thumb brushed his cheek to remove the tears of pain. "Please Spence; just hold on until help gets here please." Her hand shook as she ran it over her mouth to create some poise in herself. "I need you to hold on." She said as she put it back down to his face, cupping his cheek to get some lucidity from him.
She could see him trying but she could see him dwindling and she listened to him splutter and spurt with each exhale. She knew the time was coming to an end. "R-remem-ber me." He mastered and she heard his breath become strangled. "L-like we... we..." She heard him inhale with difficulty.
"Like we watched." She finished for him and smiled as the tears poured. "I don't want to Spence. I shouldn't have to." She told him hurriedly, her blue eyes blurring with the new welling of tears. "You're not supposed to die on me Spencer. I love you too much and I was a fool for not telling you. Please stay with me Spencer." Her words become more chocked as his breathing lessened, his eyes began to roll back and his eyelids began to slack. "I love you Spencer." She sobbed almost inaudibly as his breathing shut off and it was as she slumped to his chest that she realised she'd had so many wasted opportunities. Ones that would stick in her gut until the day she died.
"What we watching?" He asked he sat down, she'd watched him run through the health prospects of popcorn and now he'd finally cooked it and brought it to her. "I'm guessing nothing educational or science related?"
"Afraid not Spence." She told him and turned on the film. "You got Star Trek last time; I get Remember Me this time." He looked at her, a perplexed look to his face and she grinned. "Fair is fair." She finished by popping some of the warm popcorn in her mouth.
Come the end of the movie Reid put his head to the side and made a thoughtful noise. "You reckon we'd be remembered for anything like that? I mean he practically fixed his family back together. Did all those things. Fell in love, showed his sister her father did truly love her, made his father realise his wrongdoings and made sure everyone was happy around him."
JJ shifted and turned to look at him. "You aren't thinking of skipping out on this world are you?"
"What?" He squawked and looked at her with wide eyes. "No! I just don't feel like I've done much to say I've accomplished what he has."
"Reid it's a film for one and secondly, there are plenty of things you've done that warrant you being remembered."
"Oh yeah? Apart from being a geek?"
"Psychic magic, just after Emily joined the team. Made the pot hit Hotch." She told him with an impressed manner.
"That still implies my geekier side." He pointed out at her blankly and looked at her with a little crooked grin."So theoretically you..."
"But we love your geekier side. I love your geekier side." She intercepted him mid sentence and smiled, she really did love that about him. "It makes you unique, makes you special. Makes you my little genius." She watched him smile. She'd remember him for his unruly hair, his gangly limbs, his way of speaking, his bluntness, his awkwardness, his knowledge, his wisdom, his smile, his spark. She'd remember him for the reasons she fell in love with him in the first place. She'd remember him for him, because Spencer Reid was unforgettable.
JJ had to pull herself away and excuse herself, she could see herself kissing him on those perfectly luscious lips, she could see herself just delving in for the sweet sensation she'd get for touching them with her lips. She went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror at herself. She was a single mom, Reid wouldn't want that and she refused to ruin her friendship with him so she restrained from all feelings to him. One thing she was sure of was that she'd never forget them.
JJ continued to sob into Reid's unmoving chest; she didn't move, she just cried. It was all she knew to do in that moment. Between the chokes of emotions and the heaving of not breathing she just wanted to remain there until a new life was breathed back into his body. She hit his chest with a clenched fist as she heard the sirens roar getting closer and the fact that they were still coming made her heart break harder. If only they'd been quicker, or if only Reid had held on a little longer.
Morgan stepped in and picked her up in his arms. He knew if he placed her on her feet she'd only just collapse back into the position she was, completely unmoving. However much he wanted to grieve he needed to get her away from his body, take her as far away from the situation as he could right that moment. JJ continued to cry and howl as though her heart was actually breaking, that it was painfully snapping in half, becoming irreparable. Prentiss joined Morgan in his stride and followed, waiting for the opportunity to take JJ in her arms and offer her some comfort.
JJ lived with each new passing moment, from the moment she heard the bullet and saw it pierce Reid's chest her life had been on slow mode and everything that passed her seemed to blur and merge together. She sat with Prentiss while paramedics tried in vain to revive Reid, she sat and watched as they loaded his now officially dead body into the back of the van and she'd allowed Rossi to take her home earlier that night, while Hotch went and got Henry to bring back to her. She accepted a phone call off Garcia but kept it short and to the point, telling her she was okay. She even made dinner, fed Henry, bathed him and now sat cradling him as she watched the film Remember Me roll out.
She let silent tears roll down her face. All she had now were memories of Reid, both personal ones and professional ones, the good ones and the bad ones. All she could do now in life was honour Reid's last request and remember him.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Remember Me -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A.N: I went all sad and tragic! BUT the muse bit this plot bunny and took it! I think this is one of the saddest things I've ever written!
Hope you liked and drop a review and lemme know =)