All standard author's notes and disclaimers apply. See profile.

Special author notes: I know that this has been done before, but I wasn't going to be satisfied until I'd done my own. Also, I don't usually address the reader in my fics, but the first paragraph seemed necessary to explain the story's title (which is not a typo/error.) The "s" in Second's is possessive.

Second's Chances

It's amazing how your whole life can change in a single second, bringing you around a corner you never imagined, shattering your world and rearranging it into something completely different. A single second that becomes a threshold of Before and After. We all know the tragic love-story of SSA Dr. Spencer Reid and Dr. Maeve Donovan, and how in a single second their future was destroyed, but it could just as easily have ended any number of ways. In another world, it did.

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"Thomas Merton."

Diane snapped her gaze to Maeve. "What?"

"He's the one thing you can never take from us." A calm had entered Maeve's eyes, even as resolve and sadness and a burning passion for the man she was staring at stormed in their depths.

Horror flooded Spencer, knowing what she was doing- what she was really saying- and he saw the shift in Diane in response. She had also come to a resolution, and desperate words flew from Spencer's mouth. "Kill her and she can't suffer!" he shouted in a panic.

Diane hesitated, her brow gathering into a scowl. "You would say anything to keep her alive!" she spat in reply.

Despite her objection, he'd seen the interest he'd sparked and knew that he had her. Swallowing hard, he began the careful work of reeling her in. "Does that really matter?" he asked. "Think about it; if you kill her, she still wins. Her pride and her sense of self and her accomplishments and our love- everything that she has that you want- she keeps it to the very end. But if you let her live, if you kill me instead, then she will have to spend the rest of her life knowing that it was her fault that the man she loves is dead. Everything else will fall apart, and a day won't pass when she won't think of you, regretting what she did and knowing... that you won."

He was fighting to keep his voice from trembling, but he still had to take another breath to force out the end of the last sentence. He could see the temptation his logic wove, the proposal gaining ground in Diane's frenzied mind, but she warred with the knowledge that she was being manipulated.

"Spence, no!" Maeve instinctively cried in a fit of fear, to stop him from making such a horrible suggestion, but she realized her mistake too late. Diane saw the proof of the effect Spencer's death would have on her, and her decision was made.

A smile crept over her lips. "Alright, we'll have it your way."

"No!" Maeve wailed, but her plea was cut off by a rough shake from Diane, and Maeve closed her eyes as torrential tears streamed from them.

"Get over here!" Diane shouted to Spencer.

Moving slowly so as not to alarm her and keeping his hands in view, he complied. When he was within reach of the two women, Diane pushed Maeve violently away and grabbed Spencer all at once, positioning him as Maeve had been before. He offered no resistance, but he was bent backward awkwardly to accommodate Diane's shorter stature and he held onto her arm that was wrapped around his neck for support. Maeve stumbled as she was pushed away and Derek caught her, steadying her and then pushing her behind him to shield her from the stalker with his body.

"I want her to see this!" Diane warned as J.J. rushed to Maeve's side with the clear intent of escorting her out, and J.J. reluctantly stilled and, after a moment's hesitation, backed away.

"Please don't do this!" Maeve begged. There was no point in trying to deny what Spencer meant to her. "Please!"

"It doesn't have to end this way," Hotch joined in, "it doesn't have to be over."

Diane was unmoved. "But it is over. And, after all that she took from me, I'm going to take something from her! Something she can never get back..." Her tone oozed with delight as she drifted off.

Spencer was aware of the motley reactions of his team- Morgan's jaw clenching, Hotch's level glare deepening slightly, J.J.'s dry swallow, Blake's fingers flexing around her gun- but he was focused only on Maeve. Grief and fear was evident in every aspect of her mein, but they were almost overshadowed by her fierce rage toward Diane. Finding her eyes and holding them on his, Spencer willed comfort to Maeve, silently apologising and hoping she understood what he was trying to say without words. They had traded places, and he was the calm one now, and she was terrified. He felt the warm muzzle of Diane's gun press harder into his temple, and he knew he'd arrived at the penultimate second of his life. He'd been there before, with Tobias and then the anthrax and numerous other occasions when he'd thought it was the end, but instead of memories of the past racing through his mind as they had done before, memories of the future flooded his mind, seeing an entire life with Maeve at once.

He saw his dream of their wedding but, this time when he lifted the veil, he saw her beautiful face smiling at him, and they kissed. He saw them lying together on a beach, her head resting on his chest and their fingers idly playing with each other as they read books. He saw her meeting his mother, he saw them going to the movies, and coming home to make love almost before the door was even closed behind them. He saw his hand resting on her swollen stomach, then holding her hand as she pushed, her hair stringy with sweat and her face flushed and blanched at the same time but still, oh, so beautiful! He saw their baby, first in their arms in the hospital, then walking between them a few years later. He saw himself coming home from work, all the ugliness of the case erased the instant he saw Maeve on the other side of the door. He saw the life he would have had if Diane hadn't existed to take it all away.

Passion and anger filled him and, as she lifted the gun to bring it from his temple to hers, he acted, determination blinding him. He'd spent countless hours sparring with Morgan and none of it had ever seemed to sink in, but now he called upon every session and manuever he'd been shown and willed his body to perform them, twisting out of her right arm and grabbing her left as he stepped behind her, bringing the right arm with him. The gun fired at the ceiling and Diane let loose an anomalistic cry, wrenching herself free of Spencer but losing the gun to him. He aimed it at her and she charged and, once again, a shot rang out. Diane's body dropped and, for a moment, everything froze, all eyes on Diane's body in shock and doubt, and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of heavy breathing. It all happened and ended in a single second.

Realizing Diane was, in fact, dead, Spencer lowered the gun and movement filled the room again, Hotch and Morgan going over to the body to check for a pulse, and Maeve rushed into Spencer's arms.

"Spencer!"

"Maeve!" he sighed in ineffable relief, her head buried in his neck and nose buried in her hair. At last, he was holding her. At last, she was safe. He could ask for nothing more, and he tightened his arms around her, cradling her tenderly with a strength that said that he'd never let her go. He didn't care that they were being watched, even though his past experiences had made him shy of PDA, and without hesitation he pulled away enough to cup her face and cover her mouth with his. She returned the kiss with fervor, knotting her hands in his hair with a similar vow that she would never be parted from him.

When they at last broke for air, Maeve was trembling and breathless, the events of the last few minutes hitting her all at once. "That was so stupid!" she choked, but the effect of disapproval was lost under the affection and horror in her voice and eyes. "You could have been killed! What would I have done without you? How could you be so stupid? Why?"

Spencer was without remorse, but her rubbed his hands over her back soothingly. "Because I love you... more than I've ever loved anyone. And I would rather die than live one minute of my life without you." he answered earnestly.

Maeve could only hold onto him tighter in response. "And I love you!" she exclaimed before laying her head against his chest, unconscious that she was drawn there by the need to be reassured by the sound of his heartbeat beneath her ear. Her hands drifted down to his shoulders, and it was only when she felt the warm sticky fluid on her fingers that she suddenly remembered that Spencer had been shot. She pulled away in alarm.

"Spencer! You've been shot!"

He smiled and she realized that he, of course, had been aware of that fact the whole time. She blistered with anger that he'd ignored the injury.

"It's not bad; it's just a flesh-wound." he replied.

He was being honest, she decided, and was slightly mollified. "You still need to go to the hospital." she reminded.

"We both will." he agreed, glancing meaningfully at the dried blood that ran from her hair. They hugged once more, then mutely decided that they had been in that awful building long enough. With their arms still wrapped around each other and Maeve pressed into Spencer's side, they walked away, leaving Diane's body behind them, but the memory of what had happened and what they'd almost lost would remain with them. Even long years later, it would survive, drifting into their reflections from time-to-time to remind them that their life together had come within a breadth of never being, and keep their gratitude for each other burning.

As they stepped out of the building and into the cool night air, Maeve closed her eyes and sighed. Free. Free with the man she loved. She hugged him tighter and smiled as she remembered her promise, a promise she fully intended to keep. "I'm still going to make blindfolds fun for you again."

Surprised by the non-sequitur, Spencer laughed, but it was subdued by the thought of the blindfold he'd just worn. "Only you could." he decided.

And he relished the thought that, together, they would make over all their nightmares into dreams.