Really?
Hey guys! So this is my first story on fanfiction (my first story I ever wrote, actually) and I hope you'll like it. Reviews are always welcome :) Enjoy!
Disclaimer: i do not own Criminal Minds or any of the characters.
"Sorry, I had a... situation." Morgan watched as Reid tried to explain why he was late. He sounded out of breath, like he had been running, wich Morgan realized he probably had. Everybody stared at him, making Reid grow bright red, and, yeah, altough he was amused, Morgan felt sorry for the kid. He was already socially awkward, he didn't really need extra attention.
Stil, he couldn't help wondering what the 'situation' was about, because that boy was never late unless he had a good reason for it. The only times that he didn't came in time, was when he was struggling with his addiction, and of course, when he cut his hair to the 'boysband-style' as Hotch liked to call it. Yes, it probably was non of his business, but his curiousity didn't care. After some curious looks from everyone, and a lot of blushing and fidgetting from Reid, everybody was updated on the new case, so Hotch started giving orders. "Garcia, see what you can find on that Cody Jackson. Jj, Prentiss, you guys pay a visit to the Martles family while Morgan and Rossi work on the profile. Reid, you and me are going to work out the geographical profile." This was strange, because their boss rarely did geographical profiles, and Reid suspected that he would need to explain his 'situation' near once they were alone. And he was right.
As soon as the rest of the team left the room Hotch said "Reid, my office, now."
'He wants to know why I'm late.' Spencer tought, following the older agent to his personal interrogation room. This morning he had this very vivid nightmare about his mother having an episode and strangling him to death because she tought he was one of 'them'. Actually, it came pretty damn close to something he had experienced when he was younger. He woke in the middle of a full-blast asthma attack, desperately searching for his inhaler, in the dark, what made him panic even more. After he had found and inhaled his medication (apparantly, he hadn't took it out of his messenger bag the day before) and he could breathe a bit better, he had to try all kinds of stuff to get his breathing back to (almost) normal. Hot coffee (with a lot of sugar, of course), a very steamy shower, relaxing exercises,... By the time the tight feeling in his chest had subsided a little, it suddenly hit him, and a glance on the clock told him he was right: he was ten minutes late already, and he was far from ready to go to work. When he eventually arrived at the BAU, the running and stressing out about being late had messed with his lungs again and he had to stop outside to calm his ragged breathing. Nobody knew he had asthma, and he also didn't want anybody to know, but he was pretty good at hiding it. He tought it was kind of embarressing to have a disease like that, and he was already the youngest member of the team. They would think he was weak, needed protecting like he was still a child.
And so he sat here, in the office of his boss, as if he had done something wrong. It made him uncomfortable. "Reid... I'm sorry but have to ask you this..." He had expected something else than the tone his boss was using. It was stern, yet soft, and maybe a little concerned. "I'm asking this for your own good..." He let out a deep sigh. "Did you use something today?" At first, Reid was confused, he had expected everything but this question, but when he realized what his boss was talking about, he automaticly fell into defense mode. "What?No!" Why would he think that? He didn't do anything wrong, did he?
"Really?" He was angry now, dissapointed. "Then you will have no problem explaining to me why you were late this morning? Or why your hands are shaking, maybe?" Now it made sense. The shaking was caused by the medication he took for his asthma, but he didn't think anyone would notice. Reid sighed. He couldn' lie about it. He would feel guilty about it for the rest of his life. "It... It's from the albuterol" he muttered. There was a brief pause. "Albuterol? So you're taking steroids now?" Hotch said, his face angry and his voice now full of disbelief. "No! It's not..." Reid wanted to say he was wrong all the way, but right at that moment, Prentiss came in "Boss, we have a possible lead on..." she said, and then she paused to watch the scene in front of her. "...on the case." She decided she wasn't needed anymore, and then left with a small "Sorry, I should have knocked."
"We'll discuss this later." Said Hotch, and before he had the chance to say something, he was gone. Reid didn't know what to do now. He had made Hotch, who tought he was doing drugs again, angry with him. He was late this morning, and Prentiss was most likely feeling guilty for intruding the conversation, no, discussion between her boss and her collegue, all because of him. 'Calm down' he tought, realizing the tight feeling in his chest became worse. 'It isn't that bad.'
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Jj watched how the youngest member of the team changed his sitting position every 5 seconds or so, going from hunched over to straight up, eyes facing the bright lights of the room as if he didn't care about how they were going to enter the house. He was always so focused, but right now it was like he was on another planet. Something was obviously bothering him, making him uncomfortable and distracting the young genius from some important information. Maybe it was the case that got to him. After all he was acting a little strange sinds the beginning of it. She observed him closely, watched how he was bent slightly forward, his upper arms flat on the table and his head bent to the case file, but she knew he couldn't be studying it since he had an eidetic memory and he most likely could ramble it all off. He seemed so concentrated on... Something, not what Hotch and Rossi were explaining. Maybe he's nervous about something. He checked his watch again. Yeah, that must be it.
~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~#~
25 minutes.
It couldn't take much longer, could it? The first ten minutes had gone great, but afterwards he had started to feel his chest tighten up. From there on it went downhill. The wheezing began only moments later, and he breathed as careful and quiet as he could, trying not to panic. He gave up listening a few minutes ago, because he needed all his focus to keep breathing and at the same time pretend nothing was out of the ordinary. His lungs hadn't calmed down since that attack two days ago, and he hoped nobody had noticed something was off. 'Darn, Hotch, hurry up!' He tought 'I can't breathe. Please.'
Fortunately, as if he had heard his silent pleas, Hotch ended with a "Good luck everyone." and Reid scooted trough the hall to the shower- and dressroom, not bothering to even look around,
unaware of someone following him.
If I made any mistakes, I'm sorry. You can always put them in a comment so I won't make one of them again. I'm only 13 and English is not my mother language, so please don't go to hard on me. Anyway, next chapter will be up soon.
Thanks for reading!
