A/N: Welcome to the Papercut Murders! In the attempt to improve my writing skills I'm trying to put more character depth and balance out the whump a little but don't be afraid! There will be plenty of whump! As always I beg for reviews.

Chapter 1

Sweat dripped in his eyes. He took time to wipe them away when it stung. He looked around worried Morgan might have noticed but he seemed to have gotten away with it. It felt good to be running on the treadmill. To be running at all, even supervised. He was on such a tight leash now and it felt good to get a little room to move. He was tired of constantly being under guard. He was really starting to relax into it when he heard the treadmill switched to the cool down program.

"No, Morgan I can keep going, I'm fine." he complained reaching to turn it back up only to get his hand smacked.

"Reid the doctor said you had to work your way back up slowly." Morgan circled behind the treadmill and half guided half dragged Spencer off the machine.

"Snail's move faster, I'm fine, I don't feel out of strained or winded. I'm bored!" Derek chuckled getting behind him so he couldn't escape and pushed him towards the gym showers.

"You built up a sweat; you didn't do that last week, don't complain so much." Morgan shoved his gym bag at him and shoved him to the showers ignoring the over dramatic sigh.

It had been eight months since the Chaplin incident and Morgan had been put in charge of getting Reid field ready again physically. It had been difficult for him to recover. Between the heart problems and the pneumonia he'd had to stay in the hospital over a month. They'd had a few scares for heart attacks since his release which proved to be false alarms.

"Do we have a new case?" Reid asked hopeful for some change following Morgan out to the car.

"Yup, serial arsonist in Wyoming." Reid didn't comment seeing Morgan check the back seat before getting into the car. He'd been checking the back of any car ever since Chaplin.

"Good, it'll be nice getting out of headquarters. I've missed my seat on the jet." Reid prattled.

"Uh uh, you're not cleared for the field yet. You know that Reid." he slumped deeper into the chair aggravated.

"Morgan I'm fine. I can handle field work. There haven't been any weird palpitations or shortness of breath in months. I just did those twenty minutes and it was easy."

"Sorry kid, you remember how easy the doctor said it would to trigger more heart attacks even as good as you've been doing."

"I can do better, more, I know I can."

"I know kid, it's not a race it's a recovery. You gotta give yourself the time you need to get your heart back in shape. Didn't the doc cut back your heart medicine this week?"

"Yeah, he said he said he's keeping me on it still as a precaution but he thinks I'm okay now."

"See, improvement, just be patient." they parked at headquarters.

"I'm just tired of being useless to the team."

"Hey, listen to me. You don't have to prove yourself to any of us, you hear me?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Good, now let's get in there I'm sure Hotch has all our paperwork ready for you to work on at your desk."

"Haha, very funny." Reid was left groaning when he got to his desk and found the joke to be a reality. For all their sympathy he found a disturbing lack of reluctance to give him their paperwork to keep him busy. He joined in on the conference for the serial arsonist then reluctantly waved them farewell as they left for Wyoming. He hated this feeling of being left behind.

He went back to work dutifully sorting through all the paperwork, proofreading everyone's reports as they sent them to him. Whatever it took to keep busy and useful. He was glad when his phone rang again.

"Hey Morgan…the unsub's doing what? Hmmm, it doesn't sound like you're dealing with an arsonist in the traditional sense. He may be offering sacrifices to the fire by burning his victims. You know in many ancient cultures fire itself was worshipped as an elemental deity and…." He scowled at the phone, "He hung up on me." His stomach rumbled inspiring him to glance at the clock and grin. He pulled out his lunch already salivating at the BLT, lightly toasted, that was the main course of his lunch. He dove in to take a big bite shocked to only snap against air. He stared confused, sandwich missing.

"Is this bacon on this sandwich? Really Reid? Bacon!" Garcia held the stolen sandwich examining it disapprovingly.

"Who doesn't love bacon? And you can't have a BLt without bacon or it would be lettuce and tomato and who wants just lettuce and tomato?" he lunged to rescue his food when Garcia began pulling out all the bacon.

"In your condition you think I'm going to let you eat bacon? No sir you will not be feasting on the salty flesh of bacon today." She set down the pillaged sandwich and grabbed the rest of his lunch examining it critically.

"In my condition? I'm not in any condition Garcia I'm fine." She was too quick for him to snatch back the bacon.

"Sweet cheeks , you had six heart attacks and over a month in the hospital. I am not going to sit back and watch that all happen again. No! I am going to make sure you keep those arteries clear and you can't stop me!" she stomped off with the food she deemed forbidden. His mouth hung open his last unspoken arguments stuck in his throat. He sank back into his chair his lunch ruined. He ate what was left to tide him over until he could sneak out and get something else and tried to push back that childish feeling. He was tired of being told how to exercise and how to eat. He checked the clock. He had time. He pulled out his laptop and logged into the online chess server.

"Are you there? I could really use a good match right now."

"You caught me on my day off, everything okay?" Reid waited eagerly for the first move to be played.

"Fine, just needed a break."

"Good, I'm glad you're good." they kept quiet for a few rounds.

"You've been practicing." Reid encouraged.

"I try to practice every night, maybe I'll beat you this time."

"No you won't, but I can see the improvement."

"So kind of you to spare me the suffering of false hope." Reid chuckled sensing the sarcasm. They played through three more games, Reid winning all of them, before he had to get back to work.

"Time for me to work again."

"Spencer thank you for the games, I know my leaving hurt you, I just really appreciate getting the chance to make amends." Reid paused to think about an answer. He never really knew how to respond to those kinds of sentiments.

"I know Dad." he chewed his lip feeling a little uncomfortable now.

"Can we play again this weekend?"

"Sure, gotta go now Dad."

"Bye Spencer, love you." Spencer logged off.