Sympathy for the Devil
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~A scorpion and a frog meet by the bank of a stream and the scorpion asks the frog to help him across by carring him on its back because he cannot swim.
Hesitant, the frog asks, "But you're a scorpion. How do I know you won't sting and kill me?"
To this the scorpion says, "Because if I did that, I would drown with you."
The frog is satisfied by that logic and he decides to help the scorpion. They set out but in midstream, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog feels the onset of paralysis and starts to sink, knowing they both will drown, but has just enough time to gasp, "Why did you do that? Now we will both die."
Replies the scorpion: "I could not help it. It is my nature."~
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Prologue
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"You need to step out of the room now. If you're not getting any medical treatment, you need to be escorted back to gen pop by a guard."
He is fighting to keep his voice calm and professional, to keep the sudden fluttering of his nerves and the tension that overcomes him out of it. In return, he receives a shark smile that tells him exactly how transparent he is being.
Seth takes another leisurely step towards him, putting himself in the way to the door.
"I don't see any guards." There are too many teeth in his smile. Impossibly many. A wolf's teeth shining out from under a carefully maintained sheep's pelt. "Just us."
Dr. Spencer Reid swallows convulsively as he steps back, feeling sweat gather on his brow. His eyes flicker over Seth's shoulder to the hallway behind the glass door.
It is just them.
Just them in his empty doctor's office, behind a closed door and with no guards, not even another inmate, in sight. He has tried so hard not to let it come to this...just as hard as Seth Gecko has worked on the exact opposite.
"Seth-" he begins a protest, pathetically weak from the start.
Seth's smile turns into an expression that is smoldering, his black eyes burning right through him, a current of frenzied, mad desire. Reid finds himself unable to speak, his heart suddenly beating against his ribcage so hard and fast now that he can hardly breathe.
No. No, he can't let this be happening-
He keeps backing away blindly, so focused on the man closing in on him that he doesn't notice the hard edge of the examination table until it bites into the small of his back. He winces, momentarily thrown, then jumps, head snapping back around when the inmate is suddenly right there, in front of him, two large hands gripping the table to both sides of his hips and effectively caging him in.
His hands fly up out of reflex, feebly pushing against the hard muscle of two arms clad in bright prison scrubs.
Seth breathes in deeply and leans closer instead of moving away, an unstoppable force. With lowered lashes he meets Reid's unblinking stare, that terrific smile still in place.
"I was hoping I'd get you alone."