First Criminal Minds story, so bear with me. This is set in no particular season, just somewhere in the middle of when Emily Prentiss is on Criminal Minds and Reid was using dilaudid. It will sometimes be a little OOC, so again, bear with me.
**DISCLAIMER**
I own nothing of Criminal Minds, and all characters belong to CBS. Dilaudid belongs to whoever created it (I'll get back to you on that), and I only own the plot. The characters are NOT mine, and this will be the only disclaimer in the story as I don't wish to bore you.
~FANFICTION~
"Heads up, we got a case." Morgan's voice could be heard in the bullpen as Garcia entered holding a bunch of files, placing one on everyone's desk. It was the usual day in the BAU; case, conference room, go and solve the case, come back, sleep, repeat. Morgan sighed as he flicked through the files, taking in the case details before heading over to the coffee to speak to Emily, who was looking a little grumpier than usual, going through a box of her favourite sweetener; splenda.
"Emily, we got a case. Conference room, ten minutes." He handed her the file, which she accepted. Taking care not to spill any splenda onto the file, she simultaneously began reading it and making her coffee, mumbling something about Garcia, horoscopes and superstitious idiots. Hiding a laugh, Morgan started making his way to the conference room, joining Garcia, who was setting up her presentation. Reid was sitting at the table, reading something or the other, and Rossi was busy speaking to JJ, who was scrawling down some notes. Emily arrived soon after, carrying her mug of splenda-laced coffee.
"Strauss is cutting budgets again." Hotch's voice was heard at the door, carrying his own file. He always began the meetings without a greeting, Morgan mused.
"What? Again?" Reid's indignant words were slightly angrier than his usual mellow tone. In fact, Morgan noticed he was a bit more agitated than he was last time they cut budgets.
"Hope they don't take away the jet." Rossi said, dubiously. "Its' not gonna be good for fast responses to cases."
"Or the coffee. I'd leave." Reid put in, taking a sip from the said drink.
"What, they'd only save about fifty bucks a week." Rossi shot back jokingly, knowing full well exactly how much of the thin bitter liquid the team consumed on a daily basis, and that was a lot even without the extra overtime they had all been putting in.
"Okay, let's focus on the case at hand. We can worry about the budget cuts later." Hotch said, handing the remote to Garcia, motioning for her to start. The team quietened as Garcia cleared her throat and began speaking.
"Alright, your new case is in Cleveland, Ohio. Four men, all found dead in their homes. All of them were 6"1 and had brown hair. Light brown to be exact. They all had high concentrations of opiods in their blood, and after the Medical Examiner's first preliminary examination, she determined that they had never been using before. Also, all of them had ligature marks on their wrists and ankles, but in their homes there were no signs of struggling or drugs. Andrew Halter, James Young, Alexander Worth and Randall Holt." She pressed the button on her remote. All of the men were lying on the floor, parallel to the front door with their eyes closed. "The TOD was 6pm, on respective Fridays, once a week. Obviously since Friday is once a week, but back onto point. The first murder was a month ago, so that puts the approximate time of death for the next victim as 5 days and fourteen hours, if my calculations are correct." Garcia said, scanning her file for the details and consulting her watch.
"Opiods? Garcia, do you know exactly what kind? It might help us determine who the unsub is." Emily piped up from her seat, riffling through the folder.
"Opiods? Yes, the medical examiner put it here somewhere." She said, scanning through the file again. "Oh, there were very high concentrations of dilaudid." Garcia replied to Emily's question, not noticing Reid stiffening. The action hadn't gone unnoticed by Hotch's careful eye, and he made a mental note to inquire.
"Alright, if they're no more questions. Wheels up in twenty." Hotch said, gathering his equipment and leaving, closely followed by Rossi, Morgan and Emily, draining her cup of coffee as she exited. Garcia left soon after, mumbling about tech support and Kevin Lynch. JJ noticed that Reid hadn't moved, and went over to him.
"Hey, Spence, we gotta go." She said quietly, placing a hand on his shoulder, pulling him out of his trance.
"Oh what? Okay, see you later." He muttered, picking up his messenger bag and files and leaving the room, JJ still standing by the seat.
As JJ headed to her office to get her go bag, her mind was on Reid. He seemed a little off somehow, not the rambling genius he usually was but distracted, in the sense that something was bothering him. Writing it off as nerves and sleep deprivation (which they all suffered from, some more often than the others), she headed out to the jet, where the team were already present. She seated herself opposite Emily, before poking about in her go bag and extracting a bag of Cheetos; her favourite snack. Morgan and Emily shared a smile as JJ attacked the treat, talking about something humorous that had happened a while ago. JJ ignored them, simply crunching her coveted treats.
On the other side of the jet, it was far more quiet. Hotch and Rossi were quietly conversing about the case and Reid was sitting quietly with his eyes closed as the plane took off. Morgan noticed JJ casting him some concerned glances, but didn't say anything, writing it off as sleep deprivation, just like JJ did. God knew that they all needed a break; solving case after case took a lot out of them, and he wasn't surprised if they would burn out soon. Even Hotch (who was basically invincible) could only last so long without a break. Heck, even Rossi was losing some of his usual sassy humour and Garcia was far less perky than she usually was. The difference was quite large, and Morgan missed the old rambunctious Garcia. That was what made her special, and he disliked Kevin heartily at that moment, that he got to spend time with his baby girl whilst he was stuck on another case. Typical life, he thought. Just typical.
"This job does not pay enough." Emily remarked from her file, looking at the crime scene pictures. "Honestly, if they keep cutting budgets we'll be doing this for free." She added darkly, turning the page, thinking of her rapidly decreasing paycheck.
"Tell me about it," Morgan replied. "And this won't be the last budget cut we have, if I know the higher ups."
"Well, we'll be landing soon, I better go wake Reid." JJ said, excusing herself from the group, walking over to Reid, who was tossing and turning a little in his sleep.
~FANFICTION~
Reid was tied to a chair, gagged and bound. He gulped, knowing exactly where he was. The feel of the ratty floor on his bare feet was enough. He felt stinging wounds on his feet, they were red and raw and completely neglected. His brown hair was matted, and his face bruised and beaten. And the needle marks. He knew if he looked down, he would see the marks, the marks he both hated and loved, the marks he wanted to forget and remember at the same time. Feel the drug coursing through him, alleviating his pain. It was so easy; it felt so good, such a small price of pain for the huge benefit of the high that came. It felt like floating; everything was suddenly okay. When he felt the tourniquet tighten, and the rough hands inserting the needle in, he felt so happy, so good somehow, as the point of the needle pierced his vein. Feeling the dilaudid flow through his veins felt so good in such a sick way, like a fire burning through him, the inner relief caressing him, almost motherly and protective-
"Spence. Spence. Time to get up." JJ's words pulled him out of his dream with a start. He looked down on his arm; instead of the tourniquet there was a hand, instead of the needle there was a file.
"Oh, sorry." He apologised, reality coming back to him. He stretched groggily, realising he wasn't where he was in the dream. Oddly enough, he had come to enjoy the dream, the high that came with the drug, the obvious- no. He was glad it was over. But he wasn't. But he was. But he wasn't. He couldn't make up his mind on what he felt, and he sure as hell didn't want to know.
"Get a grip." He told himself, as everyone filed off the plane. A stout woman, about five foot four in height wearing a uniform was standing a few meters away from the runway.
"Officer Angela Simmons, Cleveland PD." She introduced herself, shaking JJ's hand.
"I'm Jennifer Jareau, we spoke on the phone. This is SSA Prentiss, Morgan, Rossi, Hotchner and Dr. Reid." JJ introduced the BAU.
"Nice to meet you, Detective. Prentiss, you and Morgan to the latest crime scene. Rossi, your working victimology. Reid, your headed to the precinct to work a geographical profile. I'll be headed to the morgue to speak with the ME." Hotch allocated the roles.
"Detective Jones will escort you to the latest crime scene." Simmons introduced the team to a taller man, who after saying his greetings, left with Prentiss and Morgan to the crime scene, whereas Reid, Rossi, Hotch and Simmons piled into the cruiser that was standing by.
~FANFICTION~
As the cruiser cruised (no pun intended) onto the highways, Rossi and Simmons were having an animated conversation about previous cases, whilst Hotch flicked through the ME's report to better ground him on the information at hand. Reid was looking out of the window, his eyes closed and face taut, sometimes rubbing his eyes as if something was paining him. He remained oblivious to the ever more concerned glances Hotch was shooting his way, and didn't even seem to notice. Reid was still in his trance-like state when the cruiser pulled up to the station.
"Reid. Reid." Hotch said softly, before getting louder. "Reid!" He exclaimed, pulling Reid out of his reverie, feeling very dizzy at the sudden shout. He looked up blearily, hating how the cruiser kept spinning. Cars weren't supposed to look like that, no. And why were there two Hotches?!
"Oh, sorry." He said, getting out of the cruiser quickly. Feeling another sudden dizzy spell coming on, he put his hand out to steady himself, gripping the edge of the car door with an iron grip. Hotch looked at him in concern as he walked to the other side of the cruiser.
"Excuse me, Officer, may we have a minute?" Hotch questioned Angela who was looking at Reid with undisguised concern. She quickly left, after shooting them another worried look.
"Reid. Are you alright?" Hotch asked softly, putting a hand out to steady his teammate. Rossi was halfway across the parking lot, but saw the two loitering and came over to investigate, his jolly face a little less jolly.
"Hotch, I'm fine. Just a little bit dizzy. I'll be okay till we get back home." He said, letting go of the cruiser shakily, making his was across the lot slowly.
"What's the matter with the guy?" Rossi asked Hotch as they walked into the precinct, one eye on Reid.
"I don't know, he just said he was dizzy. He said he was fine, and his judgement is unlike anyone's I've ever seen." Hotch concluded, getting a blast of cool air as the door to the precinct opened. They were ushered to a small room on the side of the main offices, with a whiteboard, table and coffee maker. As Reid began unpacking the files on the table, Rossi put the coffee on and Hotch set up the calling system with Emily and Morgan, before heading to the morgue.