Once again, Garcia found herself climbing the stairs in her high heels whilst carrying a large hamper full of goodies despite doing the same thing yesterday...and the day before that. And perhaps the day before that, too. Only this time, once reaching the top of the stairs, she spotted a familiar face.
"Hi" Garcia mumbled sadly.
"Hey" JJ replied with a shrug. "I thought I would check on Spence on my way into work" she explained.
"Me too" Garcia said, stating the obvious.
"Are these all from you?" JJ questioned, looking down at the collection of baskets sat outside Reid' apartment.
"Maybe"
"What's in that one?" JJ asked, curiously.
"Mixed nuts and seeds. I'm trying to think of something that will make him feel better so I went all Reid-like and I did a bunch of research and it turns out that nuts and seeds have naturally occuring magnesium and magnesium influences the production of seratonin which is the happy happy joy joy chemical in your brain, I don't know" Garcia rushed and leaned over to ring the doorbell. Perhaps he might actually answer this time if JJ was there, too. Reid seemed to connect better with JJ than he did with her.
"Spence, listen, if you are in there. We just want to know that you are alright" JJ explained. The last thing she wanted to do was to bother Reid whilst he was grieving but she was worried about him...they all were.
"Knock twice if you are conscious" Garcia added, hoping that it would encourage Reid to respond. If he wouldn't respond verbally, surely he would at leat give them some sort of sign that he was alive.
There was a long pause as they both listened out for the requested knock; they both prayed that Reid would fill that silence with his reassurance that he was, in fact, conscious. They didn't think Reid would do anything stupid but they needed to be sure. Reid had finally found love and for it to be ripped away from him the way it did, it would certainly have taken it's toll on him but without any of the team hearing from him, JJ and Garcia had no idea what state of mind he was in.
A whole minute had passed and they hadn't even heard the requested knock. The two girls looked at eachother with worry.
"Spence, please. You're scaring us" JJ tried again.
She couldn't help but think the worst. How could she not? She knew Spence very well and he would not leave them hanging with this kind of worry. There was still no reply.
"Maybe...maybe he's sleeping" Garcia suggested, though she didn't look too convinced.
Both of their phones went off to inform them that they had a new case. Garcia new this meant they couldn't hang around.
"Oh god, Jaje, what are we gonna do? What if he isn't sleeping? What if...look,I can't just walk away from him without knowing that he's at least breathing in there. What if he..." Garcia fell silent as a tear fell from her eye, growing tense, not daring to finish her sentence. JJ's own eyes widened with fear as she caught on to what Garcia was thinking. Spencer had been through alot in his life and he tended to struggle to overcome bad events but a loss this powerful could have pushed Reid to the limits. But he wouldn't do anything like that, would he?
"Spence, I still have the spare key you gave me. I really hate to invade your privacy but if you're not gonna give us any sign of life, I will use it" JJ warned, nervously.
It was followed by another long pause so JJ proceeded with her threat. She tried the door handle first, just to be sure but as expected from someone who wanted to lock themselves away from the world, the door was locked.
She would need to use the key after all.
"He gave you his spare key?" Garcia questioned as JJ pulled it out.
"Yeah, he gave it to me a while back" She muttered.
A 'while back' meaning six years ago, shortly after the Hankle case. JJ couldn't make sense of it at first when he gave it to her out of the blue but she put it down to wanting to feel a sense of security after being kidnapped.
JJ put the key in the hole, turned it and heard the door click to indicate that it had just been unlocked. She really hated the idea of going in without any permission from her best-friend but she really didn't want to risk it with the possibility that something had happened to him.
The two agents walked in when the door opened, scanning over the place for any signs of movement; like they would when searching a house for an unsub or victim. With books all over the floor and coffee mugs scattered on every available surface, the room was a mess, but there was no sign of the grieving man who had made it.
"Reid?" Garcia called.
JJ walked slowly towards another door, which was shut, and felt the urge to pull her gun out like she usually does when something feels wrong. It was a habit of the job but it shouldn't have been necessary because this apartment belonged to Reid.
"Spence?" JJ called as she tried to open the closed door.
This got Garcia's attention, who had previously been focusing on all the books that had been mistreated by someone who had once shown such love and care for them.
Despite being the door to the bathroom, it was conveniently left unlocked but there was still little bit of a struggle to push it open. It was almost as if there was something pressing up against it.
JJ had managed to open the door enough to squeeze her head through the gap to see what was in the way...or who.
"Oh God! Spence!" She shouted as she spotted the lifeless body lying in his own pool of blood.
"What? What is it? What's happening?" Garcia asked frantically as she took in JJ's panic.
"Call an ambulance!" JJ demanded as she used her strength to push the door the rest of the way open.
"Oh my...Oh my god!" Garcia freaked out when she saw the bloody body lying on the ground whilst JJ rushed to Reid' side in the hope that he was still alive. She searched desperatly for a pulse, praying that they weren't too late. She hated how cold he felt. How could his skin look so pale? She briefly looked over to Garcia, seeing that she was frozen in shock.
"Penelope!" JJ cried, needing to get her attention. "Call 911" she told her again.
Garcia nodded rapidly but struggled to tear her eyes away from the unconcious genius but if Reid was going to make it, she was gonna need to get it together. At least for little while. She pulled her mobile out of her bag and dialed the emergeny contct number.
JJ sighed in relief when she found the pulse that she was looking for but it was far too faint. She looked around, desperatley searching for something to tie around his blood ridden arms to stop the bleeding. She spotted the rope on the robe that Spencer had been wearing and removed it so that she could tie it around his right arm and then quickly removed her belt to used for the one on his left.
His right arm looked much worse so JJ guessed that it had been the first one to be cut up but his left arm was still bad. What the hell had he been thinking?
"They want to know if there's a pulse. Tell me there's a pulse, JJ" Garcia continued to panic whilst on the phone to emergency services.
"Yeah, but it's weak" she responded, trying to stay as calm as possible although that was near impossible to do when her bestfriend was bleeding out in front of her. "If they don't get here soon, we're gonna lose him" JJ added, with pain in her voice.
Garcia looked horrified but tleast JJ was honest about the severity of the situation. Still, she couldn't imagine life without their boy genius. "They're on their way" she said, her voice sounding so fragile.
"Spence? Spence, can you hear me?" JJ tried to wake him.
His phone was going off in the background, seemingly unimportant until Garcia caught a glimpse of the name on the screen. She rushed to Reid's mobile so that she could answer.
"Derek! It's Garcia. Reid, he...he's hurt and ...oh god, it's bad"
JJ figured Derek had called Reid to check up on him. She knew he had been calling Spence several times a day over the past two weeks but he never picked up. She looked back down at Reid, still trying to shake him awake.
"Come on, Spence. We can't lose you" she pleaded.
The two women heard sirens going off and Garcia ended the phone call by demanding Morgan meet the two at the nearest hospital. She hurried out of the apartment so that she could guide the medics to her dying friend.
But that wasn't happening, right?
Spencer wasn't dying.
Was he?
Well, It took me two and a half years...but I finally decided to have a part 2 since having it stand alone seemed cruel. I already have plans for a part 3 so don't worry about waiting that long again.