Thank you so much for the reviews, follows, and favs! I honestly wasn't expecting anything, so thank you :D
Anyway, time for some more feelz, maybe - Cassidy
Dr. Zerezghi led Reid and Morgan into the examination room where the latest, and youngest, victim, Ryan Li, was lying on a cold, sterile, metal slab.
"It's a shame, poor kid was barely 22," Zerezghi remarked. Morgan replied with a sigh,
"yeah, and right when he was getting back on his feet." There was a momentary pause before the coroner began with his report,
"Yes, well Mr. Li here has no defensive wounds, no ligature marks, only one puncture wound, and the only thing that showed up on his tox screen was enough heroin to kill a Clydesdale." Reid had been examining the victim's arms. Since Li hadn't been clean for very long, there were some very visible scars littering the bend of his elbow, but no new marks. It's a good thing the young genius was getting better at masking his headaches because a terrible one was beginning to brew right in the middle of his forehead. He couldn't press into the bridge of his nose like he normally would without triggering Morgan's overly-protective big brother response so for now he'd have to grin and bear it.
You know exactly what's causing this headache, and you also know exactly what will make it stop, Spencer quickly shook himself of these dangerous thoughts, refocusing his attention back to the puzzle lying in front of him.
"Where did you say the new puncture was? All these marks look to be at least three months old," He inquired. Zerezghi directed them to a single red dot-like scab near the base of Ryan Li's neck. Morgan inspected the mark and stated,
"Interesting placement, so he's not trying to make these overdoses look accidental per se, looks like he got him from behind… Reid what do you think?" Reid didn't respond immediately, he was still staring at Li's arms, almost hypnotized by the colors of the leftover bruises.
"Hey, Reid" Morgan nudged his colleague which brought him out of his introspection and back into the dark morgue where they were standing. Reid looked up at Morgan and finally answered,
"Hm? Oh, yeah, yes the, uh, the mark is situated towards the back of his neck, it was probably some kind of blitz attack". Morgan watched Reid with furrowed brows, trying to somehow see through him so as to know what was going on inside his mind. It was against the rules to profile fellow teammates, but they never did actually follow that rule.
The two agents exited into the parking lot to head back to their office. They were both quiet, not wanting to make things awkward by discussing what the whole team was thinking about, but finally, about halfway through the drive, Morgan broke the silence,
"How are you by the way?" Reid had been staring out the window, but heard Morgan's inquiry and responded with his usual monotoned "I'm fine". Morgan was slightly annoyed by his friend's obvious lie, he could tell this case was getting to him a little. Silence once again settled throughout the vehicle and remained that way until Morgan tried a more direct approach,
"Look, I know it's been a long time, but it's completely understandable if—" Reid cut him off,
"Morgan, I'd really rather not talk about this right now. I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine. Really. Believe me, I've been handling it just fine—alone— for quite some time".
"Reid, man—" Morgan started with a mild tint of sadness in his voice and Reid knew what had caused this. He interjected, refusing to make eye contact,
"I don't mean alone, I mean I-I didn't say that for sympathy, I just, I prefer to deal with some things on my own and this is one of those things," the car was quiet again for a moment. Even though they never said exactly what they were talking about, they both knew and at least they had finally addressed the elephant in the room. Still, it was very uncomfortable for Reid to "openly" discuss his past drug addiction with his colleague; his ears burned red and he just wanted to hide in his dark apartment. Well actually, what he really wanted was to solve this case and get it behind him, but the truth was they had barely even gotten started. They sat in silence for the rest of the short ride.
Thanks again for reading and for the support - Cassidy