Years of working at the BAU had taught Dr. Spencer Reid how to look at the case around him and make a sort of judgment on the case itself. It'd taught him how to look at things and just sort of know whether the case was going to be a simple one, or if it was going to be bad. There were little things that gave warning to what could potentially be one of their 'bad' cases. The case in Georgia with Tobias—bad. The case where he and Emily went undercover at the cult—bad. The bank robbery by the Face Cards—bad.
It was the same sort of sense that he'd had as a child, when he'd walk into the house after school and be able to judge in just a quick look whether or not it was a good day or a bad day for his mom. Being at the BAU had taken that skill and refined it.
Every single inch of Spencer had been screaming 'bad' ever since the team started this case.
There were so many things about it that had been wrong from the moment that the case had been laid out for them.
Twenty-two disappearances of young women between twenty-two and twenty-six all within a forty mile radius, three bodies discovered in the woods bearing obvious signs of what others thought were torture and what Spencer thought carried a medical feel, and no one had any kind of lead to go on. The whole thing, it felt wrong, and something in Spencer's head kept telling him just how wrong it really could go. Especially when he finally got to the small city of Louis, just a little ways outside Missoula, Montana, and got his chance to look at the bodies firsthand.
Derek stood at his side, paired with him as they often were out in the field lately. Ever since Emily had left them just a few months back, and Alex Blake had joined their team, Aaron had taken to sending Spencer out either with Alex or Derek. If it looked like Spencer was getting a bit stressed, or if Aaron was more worried than normal, he'd pair Spencer with Derek because he knew the friendship the two had and he knew there was no one who would set Spencer at ease more than Derek, or who would be able to find out quickest what was going on with him.
"Morgan," Spencer looked down at the body in front of him, eyes darting from one mark to the next, taking in each and every cut and bruise, each little puncture mark he saw, all of it mixing together in his mind to come into a more solid image, one that made his stomach churn just the slightest bit. With practiced skill he pushed all those feelings down and tilted his head so he could look up at his friend. "I think the detective was reading this wrong. This… it doesn't feel like torture to me." He turned back to the body of the young woman and waved a hand to indicate her injuries. "None of this carries a feel of torture to it. There's no signs that it was prolonged, that any of the marks were done specifically to cause pain."
"What do you think it is then?" Derek asked him.
Out of everyone, Spencer knew that Derek might bitch the most about Spencer's rambling, but he was also the one to listen to him the most and to take his words more seriously than anyone else. He knew when to tease and when to listen. Right then, he was watching Spencer in a way that made it clear he was listening right now. That made Spencer's lips twitch into the ghost of a grateful smile before it was wiped away and he was focused once more on the case. "Some of the marks feel medical. See here, and here?" He gestured first to the puncture marks on the inside of her arms, obvious needle marks that the detective before them had assumed were from drug use, and then down to the spots on the bottom of her feet. "I don't think she had a drug problem. I think the needle marks are from our Unsub. And the marks down here on her feet are marred at the edges, but I think that was from running. If you look closely, you can see underneath some of the tears that there appears to be cuts that are almost perfectly precise."
Derek bent down with him and looked closely where Spencer was indicating. "Like someone was taking a sample of some kind."
"Exactly."
The implications of that weren't good. If this was a matter of experimentation, something medical, it changed the parameters of their profile entirely, and not in a good way.
Bad feelings didn't stop them from working the case, though. It didn't stop Spencer from doing his job and doing it well. All of them worked hard, and almost nonstop, until they finally came across their best lead just three days after they landed in town.
With local officers and a SWAT team to back them, the BAU led the way into an old medical facility just fifteen miles outside of town, out in the forests, that Penelope had found when she'd started to look for anything within their search area that was sucking up the kind of power Spencer had suggested the Unsub's facilities might need. That had led them to this building, which had led Penelope to information about a man named Anton Bible. His past had been full of all the markers of a dangerous man, one that Spencer firmly believed should've been watched already. Privately, he wondered to himself what good were secret groups like SHIELD if they weren't monitoring these kinds of people. He kept that thought mostly to himself, though, only murmuring it to Derek, mostly because SHIELD wasn't exactly a well-known group, and there were people who'd want to know how someone like Spencer knew about them.
Walking through the facility with Derek in front of him, Spencer kept a sharp eye out around them. Bible had to be in here somewhere. When Penelope had looked, she'd promised them that his vehicle was outside, and they'd found it there. That meant he should be inside. A bit of help from Penelope and they'd been able to cut the security once they were inside, but that would only prevent Bible from seeing them coming, not from knowing they were there. Their best hope was that the man would be too caught up in what he was doing to notice the security feeds going down.
"When we get out of here, I'm lodging a complaint." Spencer murmured, back against the wall as Derek twisted to check the way.
His friend pulled back, gun at the ready, and flashed Spencer a smile. "With who?"
"Anyone. Creeping through laboratories of deranged scientists was not on the job description when I was hired."
Over their earpieces came the sound of JJ's low laugh, soft and barely there. "Look at you, Spence, making jokes. You've been spending too much time with Morgan lately."
"No such thing." Derek shot back just as quietly. He went around the corner and Spencer moved easily to follow him, watching his back as they went.
Their chatter was cut off by Aaron's firm "Focus" that drew their attention back to the matter at hand. Just in time, too, because Spencer heard Alex's voice next, lowly telling them "We found prisoners. Rossi and I are going to get them out of here."
There's no real time for Spencer to respond. He and Derek have reached the end of the hall, where there's just a single door, and neither one can risk responding as they set themselves up on either side of it and prepare to enter.
People say that things can speed up in times of trouble. That everything 'happened so fast' they barely had time to notice anything before it was all said and done. Other agents had talked about it, about how there was no time to think, no time to do anything but react. For Spencer, it all happened the exact opposite, so slowly that his mind seemed to take in every single detail and yet he still managed to see now way to prevent what happened.
Spencer hit the button on the panel to open the door, inputting the code Penelope had given to help them override any lock, and then they were inside the room and everything moved was like it was in slow motion. Bible was in there, hands on the computer, and he lifted his head at the sight of them. Derek was the one to call out "FBI! Put your hands in the air!" while they both trained their guns on the man. Spencer saw, with that sharp minded clarity that he sometimes hated, exactly what was going to happen. He saw Bible's eyes drift over them, saw him realize what was going on and what was going to happen, and he saw as the man made his decision. Unfortunately, Spencer's gun wasn't fast enough. Even as he fired his shot, aiming to disable, and Derek fired a shot of his own, Bible reached for a gun of his own on the table while his other hand typed something out on the computer screen.
In the next second Bible was bleeding on the ground and the lights were flashing as an alarm sounded loudly around them.
Spencer darted to the computer while Derek went to the man on the ground. When the genius reached the computer, what he saw there had him swearing vehemently inside his head. There were tons of files open on the screen, plenty of documents that looked like they detailed his experiments, things that he'd done and needed to do, supplies that he had in the lab, supplies he needed to pick up, and countless other things. But what held Spencer's attention the most were the big red numbers, counting downwards. 5:00, 4:59, 4:58, 4:57…
A countdown.
A countdown was never, ever a good sign. Especially not after someone typed a command on their computer—a computer wired into the building.
Vaguely, he heard Derek behind him telling the others that Bible was down, that he was dead, but it wasn't worth focusing on at the moment.
Not liking computers and not knowing how to use them were two entirely different things. Years with Penelope had taught Spencer quite a bit; add in his own experience as a scientist in labs and it was easy for him to navigate his way through the files in front of him and figure out not only what had happened, but what was going to happen. His mental cursing grew louder.
"Hotch." Spencer snapped, breaking through the chatter on the comms. It was the sharpest his voice had ever been with them and that alone was enough to silence the line. "Bible set off the self-destruct sequence. We need everyone to evacuate the premises now. I'm going to do my best to do what I can, but if I can't, this whole building and quite a bit of the surrounding area is going to be hit. You need to get everyone out as quickly as possible." It might not help if Spencer wasn't able to contain this blast, but the further away they were the better chance everyone had. As Spencer listened to his boss start barking out orders in his ear to everyone else, he turned his head, looking at the man who'd risen to stand beside him. The single closest friend he had on the planet. "Morgan, you should go too." Don't stay here. Don't be stupid. Go, please, be safe!
The look Derek gave him clearly asked him if he was the stupid one. "I'm not going anywhere without you. Get to work, kid."
Spencer closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. Four minutes two seconds. Mentally, he pulled up his knowledge of this place, the blueprints he'd been able to see, and a plan began to form in his mind. A very, very, very bad plan. But the only one he could see working. The only way he could see to keep everyone—his family—safe. I knew this case was a bad one. I knew it.
When Spencer opened his eyes again they were calm once more. He focused them right on Derek, hoping his friend drew strength from that look, that he would trust Spencer. Right now, he really needed Derek to trust him. "If my memory of the blueprints is accurate, I might be able to contain the explosion here inside the lab. If I'm right, it'll keep the blast firmly within these walls and leave the rest of the building only partially damaged. I need your help, though."
"What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to go to the panel outside the door and pull it off the wall. Then," Here, Spencer grabbed a pair of small scissors off the nearby tabletop and passed them to Derek. "cut the blue and yellow wire. It'll stop the signal from transmitting outside of this room."
As Spencer watched his friend rush over towards the door, he took a moment to be grateful that Derek trusted him so much. Then he focused back on the computer in front of him and prayed that he remembered everything Penelope had ever taught him. Computers weren't that hard once he'd started to learn; they were all numbers and codes, things he was very good at.
The sound of the door whooshing shut behind him had him tensing. He heard Derek's shout, the sounds of the man pounding on the door, and then his voice was sharp and worried in Spencer's ear. "Reid! Reid, the door shut! I cut the blue and yellow like you said, but the door shut on me."
"I know." Spencer said. His fingers moved fast over the keys, gathering everything he could, putting every bit of safety protocol in place. There was no way to stop the self-destruct, but his suspicions had been right—he could contain it in here. Three minutes and eleven seconds.
"Son of a…" There was something akin to realization in Derek's voice. It was mostly smothered by the horror, though. "Reid! Dammit, Spencer, open this door!" The pounding started up again. Derek was going to bruise his hands if he kept hiding this hard.
Never once stopping his typing, Spencer let out a shaky breath. "I can't, Morgan. I'm sorry."
"What's going on?" Aaron asked them, his tone the clear leadership voice that demanded answers.
Spencer licked lips gone dry. He stared at the screen in front of him, at the command he was about to give. Two minutes fifty-one seconds. "I can put this lab in lockdown and contain the blast firmly inside these walls, Hotch. The rest of the building will probably suffer some structural damage, but it won't be serious. But… it must be done from the inside. Which means… I've got to be in here to do it." He could hear someone drawing in a breath to argue, and a low "Spence, no" from JJ that just about broke his heart. He closed his eyes as tight as he could and tried to keep himself in control. "I'm sorry, you guys. But the damage this would do if the place exploded, it'd be immense. The types of equipment he has here, the chemicals and samples that he's made… if this place blows, there's no telling what kind of damage it could cause. Between the bomb itself and the chemicals… it's not a risk we can take. I'm sorry."
"Dammit, Reid." Derek sounded pained. Like this actually, physically hurt him.
"I'm sorry, Morgan. I couldn't let you be in here with me. I just, couldn't." Spencer opened his eyes once more and let his finger rest over the enter key—the one that would lock this entire room down, shutting him the blast inside and cutting off all communication in and out of the room. "I… I care about all of you, so much. You've been more than just a team to me. You've been family. I could never thank you enough for everything you've done for me. Take care of each other for me. And… and make sure that Henry knows I love him, JJ. Make sure he knows that."
"I will, Spence." JJ said. There were tears in her voice and it broke his heart.
"Someone's going to need to take care of my mom for me. I've got an account set up for her bills, so that shouldn't be a problem. Just… check on her, maybe. Make sure she's okay."
This time it was Dave who answered him. "We will, kiddo. You've got my word on it."
A shudder ran down Spencer's body. One minute twenty-five seconds. "I love you all." Spencer whispered. Then, he hit enter.
All around him came the sounds of the lab slowly going into lockdown. A large, thick metal panel slid down in front of the door, and Spencer could hear as panels or beams or something slid into place in the walls. The room went from a simple lab to a bomb shelter in an instant. Only, this wasn't meant to keep bombs out. It was meant to keep one in.
Fifty-seven seconds.
The lockdown had been strong enough to even cut off the signal on Spencer's comms. He was alone in here. Absolutely alone. No one was going to be coming in at the last minute to save him. No one was going to be able to stop this. Spencer moved over to the far wall where the man's desk was. He bypassed Bible's body on the way, not even sparing him a glance. Then he sat himself down in the man's chair. The sight of the decanter and glass amidst the papers made him smile. One final drink before he went.
Thirty-three seconds.
Pouring himself a glass, Spencer lifted it in a silent sort of Cheers towards Bible's body. Then he closed his eyes briefly as he downed it all in one gulp. The burn spread down his throat, into his stomach, chasing away some of the numbness that had tried to settle in him.
Twenty-five seconds.
He opened his eyes as the countdown got lower. He wasn't going to cower here and wait for the bomb to go off. There was nowhere in here to hide, nowhere to try and minimize the damage. Spencer stood no chance and he knew it. All he could do was lift his chin and meet his fate head on with the kind of strength he hadn't had before he'd met the team. They'd helped him find it in himself. Helped him find who he was. He owed them everything. And today, this was his way to pay them back.
Alone, Spencer stared his death in the face, a soft smile on his lips and the memories of his family keeping him warm.
He held no regrets.
Thirteen seconds.
Making his way out of the labs was one of the hardest things that Derek had ever done. The only thing that gave him the strength to do it, that allowed him to move away, was knowing that Spencer wouldn't want his sacrifice to go to waste. He wouldn't want Derek right there when the blast went off. So Derek went, moving on autopilot, racing out of there with everyone else. He joined with the rest of his team, barely noticing as they were all ushered outside by someone in a vest that Derek only vaguely notice bore the word SWAT on it.
The man brought their group as far away from the building as they could get and then firmly told them "Five seconds left, get down!"
Derek couldn't keep himself from turning to stare at the building and he felt his heart shatter as the explosion rocked through the air. He and the others ducked down, hands over their heads as if that would somehow help, prepared for a blast that they were so sure was coming their way. He had faith in Spencer; faith that he would've contained the blast, that he was saving them all, but they all knew that there still a chance taking out that lab would cause other troubles. Though he had no doubt they'd all live, thanks to Spencer. Stupid, selfless Spencer, putting the safety of everyone before himself.
Only, the trouble he was expecting never came.
When Derek lifted his head, peeking out between his arms, the building was still standing. There were no signs of the explosion they'd all heard.
He'd done it. Spencer had done it.
He'd saved them.
The agony of Derek's grief felt like it was going to tear him in two. His best friend, his little brother, had paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep them all safe. He'd locked himself in that room and taken the explosion all alone so that the rest of them could live. Tears ran unchecked down Derek's cheeks as he stared at the still standing building in front of him. Beside him, he heard a low sob that he knew had to have come from JJ. Alex, soft and low, whispered the words they were all thinking, in a voice heavy with her own grief. "He did it."
The cost was too high. It was all Derek could think as he stood there and grieved for the closest friend he'd ever had. The cost was way too high.
How long they stood there, the BAU team had no idea. They stood together and stared at the building that would serve as their friend's crypt. Silence fell around them as everyone took that moment to just watch.
A sudden sound broke that silence. A crash, like something breaking, coming from inside the building.
"The blast weakened it." Dave said, voice hoarse and yet strong, that internal strength he'd showed so many times before coming through now. It kept him upright despite the moisture in his eyes that gave away his pain. "He contained it, but it must be coming down still. We need to evacuate everyone further back before it collapses."
Only, before any of them had time to move, there was another blast, closer this time, followed by another one, and then the explosion they'd all been waiting for finally came. Only it was nothing like they'd expected.
The building didn't blow and fall. One single wall, an open wall with no door, suddenly blew away in thousands of pieces, and out of the hole came walking an image from their nightmares.
Derek had jerked back at the explosion, rocking back so hard he'd almost fallen. Now he stood there with one foot back to brace himself, staring in open-mouthed horror at the thing in front of them all. All he could think was 'dear God, one of Bible's experiments survived!'
The creature was covered in fire. Looked, in fact, to be almost made of it for a moment until the flames shifted and Derek caught a glimpse of black skin underneath. Black as night, with cracks here and there and a red and orange glow seeping through, like lava breaking through rock. Fire ran along his skin, building stronger over his hands, and there was a distant part of Derek's mind that noted how this creature left burnt marks on the ground as he walked forward. His hair—was it even really hair?—was the same red/orange as that light under his skin, as if lava had poured from his head and formed into strands of hair, stopping halfway down his back. From the top of his head there was a glimpse of what looked to be black horns peeking out through the fire, laying over the top of his skull and curling down and out at the back of his head. And, God, he had a tail, a real, actual tail, black as the rest of him and tipped with fire like a torch.
"Oh my God." JJ sucked in a sharp breath, her terror easy to hear in every word. "What is that?"
Gunfire split the air. The locals were shooting at the creature, who flinched back from it but didn't go down. Something inside of Derek protested that, though he didn't understand why. That part of him wanted to scream at them to stop. Then the creature lit up brighter than before and the fire shot out from him. Derek's horror grew even more as the cops and SWAT stupid enough to get close were consumed inside the wall of flame this creature generated.
When the fire vanished, there was nothing left but ash.
"Oh God." JJ said again.
As if it heard her, the creature turned their way, eyes going right to them. Having them turned his way had Derek flinching backwards again. Almost instantly he stopped himself, shifting until JJ was behind him, until he was between his friends and that thing. The yellow/white eyes, burning bright, looked like they flickered for a moment, the flames in them shifting. Then, to Derek's shock, the creature stopped, features twisting into what he would've called a pained look on anyone else. There was something almost… familiar about it. Something that tugged at his heart and stole his breath away. He swore in that instant that he saw those lips form one single word. One word he couldn't believe it'd be saying. "Derek."
Then, with a flash of light so bright it was blinding, the thing spun around and shot away—in the opposite direction, leaving a trail of fire in its wake.
Derek stared after it, unable to comprehend what he'd just seen.
His mind kept replaying it as he stared, pulling up that moment over and over. The look on its face, that almost-pain look in its eyes, and that single whispered word, so quiet he hadn't been able to hear it. But he knew it. He knew it, because he'd seen those lips shape it a thousand times. Could recognize it across the bullpen, in a crowded restaurant, across the couch from him on movie night, pulled from stuttering lips after another nightmare.
Inside, his heart screamed out a response, breaking him as it did.
Spencer.
This was a birthday gift, an early one, for my best girl. Depending on the response there may be more later :)