Guardian Angel
'Why didn't you help us? You could have if you wanted to. You're a murderer. A murderer!'
Reid's body shook beneath the weight being put on him by the dead bodies, now alive and blood thirsty. He looked into the blank faces of the many he couldn't save just in time. The many he wished he could have, but couldn't. All the many who he wished..
'It's your fault we're dead..all yours...you're a murderer.. murderer.. murderer..'
The bright red streams, filled with glowing blood beneath the oversized, frying heads who laughed down upon him. The many damned inside the skin of the demonic head, trying to get out.
Then there was the damned that lie ontop of himself, scratching, biting, cackling, screaming, crying. Women, men, children.
'I'm sorry..I'm so sorry..' He whispered, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry!'
'Spencer? Spencer Reid? Spencer, wake up..'
Reid looked up into the swarming sky of black clouds, twirling in a hurricane fashion. 'I'm awake..I'm just in hell..' He whispered as he quivered one more at the cold touches, and the warm blood that poured out from his skin.
'No, you're not..look up, Spencer. Look into the eye of the hurricane.'
He looked up obediently, looking disdainfully but soon found some hope to cling onto as he saw the eye. The eye, filled with a bright light in which a woman slowly lowered from. A woman with dark hair.
'Wake up, Spencer..' She whispered and just as she did..
Reid woke with a start, sitting straight up in bed, clutching the sheets of the bed which felt soaked from his own sweat. He blinked rapidly as he looked around the dark room.
A door creaked and closed.
He turned his head, looking in shock as the dark oak closed, movement from the other side obvious. He jumped from his bed, hands going straight to his gun that sat beside his bed before opening opening the door quickly. His body still shook from the aftershock of the nightmare.
He breathed in and out carefully, opening the door, gun aimed.
Another door closed, and he ran towards the sound, finding it to be the front door in which he re-opened and as he pointed the gun forward, then down the hall, all he saw before they turned the corner, was dark hair.
Rossi entered the conference room last, though not late, sighing with a coffee cup in hand as he sat down carefully. "So, case finished, paperworks done since there wasn't much to report..we have another case yet?"
"We're supposed to get one within the next few hours." Hotch replied stiffly as he let his roam down the line of agents, stopping on the darkly circled eyes of his youngest agent.
Morgan sighed, rubbing the temples of his head, "Lucky that Em stopped me or I don't know if I'd been in work today" Morgan murmured with a small smile playing on his lips, "SHould have been there Rossi, I had about nine hunny's dancing with me all at once."
"..and I'm sure they were just as sober as you were." Rossi replied with a small laugh, sitting back with his coffee up to his mouth.
Morgan shrugged with a defeated smile and Emily simply smirked at the dramatized telling of Morgan's night.
"Get any sleep last night?" Morgan questioned, though it was obvious what the answer would be, as he looked over to Reid who was simply staring out in space.
"..Kind of, I guess." Reid replied, rubbing the back of his neck in thought before opening his bag to grab a book as a distraction.
"What's the problem?" Morgan questioned, folding his arms across his chest, giving an inquisitive expression.
Reid looked up for a moment, debating whether to lie himself out of having t answer, however, there was only about thirty percent chance it would work with so many profilers staring you down.
"I just..Well, I had this nightmare," Reid began, raising his book further to cover up his sleep-deprived eyes, "and when I woke up..well, just forget it."
"No, no. What happened?" Rossi countered, looking in slight concern at the bookworm.
Reid pressed his lips together and then swallowed, squirming slightly in his seat.
"..I thought there was someone in my apartment. I mean, I don't think there was actually anyone there but-"
"Woah, woah, woah. You saw someone in your apartment?" Morgan questioned, sitting forward, reaching across the table to push the book down from Reid's face.
Reid dropped it onto the table, looking around the table as though the answer lied there. He pressed his lips together carefully before shaking his head, "No, I didn't see anyone, actually. I just heard doors slam is all, but after that I was too freaked to go back to bed. It was just paranoia."
It was quiet for a minute before Reid picked the book back up, flipping a few pages to find where he was.
"You should have called one of us." Hotch replied, his face no longer containing the monotone stare, but now a lightened expression of actual concern, however, his tone did not change from his usual command.
"No, you guys didn't need to come over for something so trivial. Seriously, I was just freaked out. I mean, think about it, I haven't gotten sleep in days, I was just getting paranoid from sleep deprivation. I got some more sleep this morning before coming into work, two hours or so."
"Without the nightmares?" JJ quizzed, her eyes holding a deep concern, though she tried not to make it evident in her voice, she knew that what bothered Reid more than anything were sympathetic stares, and voices.
A long time ago she had deduced that this was most likely due to the fact that he had never gotten used to such concern. Having to be a care giver to his mother, he had to remain tough and solve his own problems without another adult to go to. This also explained much of maturity.
"Without the nightmares." Reid replied with a nod and soft smile.
"Fine.. Hotch replied carefully, "..but if it happens again, I want to be notified as soon as it happens, got it?"
Reid put his hands up in mock defeat, "I doubt it'll happen again, but fine. Fine."
A rapping at the door caught their attention, and Hotch stood to take the case file from Strauss who apparently was hand delivering this one. He took it carefully and threw it onto the desk before each of them began to read over the case, however, as a surprise, Strauss walked inside the room, looking at each of them before her eyes landed upon Reid.
"Agent Hotchner, may I have a word with you, please?" She questioned in her authorizing voice, hands on her hips.
Hotch looked up in slight surprise, but followed orders and stood following her outside the round-table room and into the hall where she cleared her throat, "Agent Hotchner, yesterday, the criminal of your case was shot and killed. Is this correct?"
"Yes. I reported that in my report."
"Yes, I know you did." She replied carefully, "The killer was shot by an outsider? A civilian?"
"Yes."
"Why is that?"
"She was attempting to stop him from resisting arrest, namely, by injuring or killing Agent Reid."
She looked at him carefully, "She saw him about to injure Agent Reid, however, your team of FBI agent's did not?"
"He was pulling the knife out of his left pocket, while my team was positioned on his right. They were beginning to circle the unsub, just as he pulled the weapon."
She blinked for a moment before nodding, "I understand. I apologize about having to clarify this with you, however, your teams reports were a bit..short. Short indescription compared to usual, however, I suppose I will not be punishing any of you on account that you managed to solve this case within the length of two days."
Reid didn't waver but nodded curtly, "I apologize. I'll make sure my teams reports fit your standards the next time." Hotch bit with a soft smirk before entering the round tabled room once more.
She glared for a moment at the back of his head before walking off, attending to other matters. This time, she would allow Agent Hotchner to feel as though he won. However, the next time such unbecoming behavior should occur, he and his team would be punished with an iron fist.
With that thought in mind, she got on with her next tedious, boring, task.
XXX
Hotchner re-entered the room swiftly, "Next reports have to be better than last reports. They were too short and lacked description." Hotch announced, taking his seat once more at the round table, "Summarize the case file, Morgan."
"Okay, John Seymour, Mackenzie Turk, Michelle Michaels, and Harold O'Brein were all just recently kidnapped within the same day. It's thought to be done by the same guy since former kidnappings of teens around similar ages, were reported to have been hoping into a black van outside of school. That was the last thing they saw them doing."
"All of them?" Hotch questioned as he read over the file just as Morgan summarized.
"Yeah, friends reported that they saw them jump into some kind of black van, and that was the last time they saw them." Morgan replied, nodding.
"Did they say who might have been in the van?"
"No, they said they had no idea, but the teens being kidnapped are supposedly some of the most popular kids in their school. The kidnapping have been happening over different schools in Vermont, one even out of the state, in New York." Reid replied.
"Well this kidnapper has to be someone they trust, obviously, but, it doesn't make sense that he knows kids from all these schools, and then from New York as well, that's out of state. So he must be persuasive, or maybe even famous in their area." JJ continued, "Otherwise, these popular kids won't think that he's cool enoughto hang out with."
"Right, so then, popularity is a key. He's famous in the area, but not a celebrity." Emily added.
"Which tells us he must live close to the state line of Vermont or Maine, if kids from both states know about him. Plus, the two schools that were in Vermont, were close to the state line as well" Reid continued the profile quickly, eyebrows downward in thought a he clicked his tongue softly.
"Yeah, so he's out of high school, popular among their age group and in that area, but not a celebrity..sounds easy enough." Rossi added, sarcasm dripping from his very tongue.
"Well, okay, look. Contacting the kids parent's would be worthless, all of them have shared the same story with the cops, that none of them have heard of any friendsother than their friends at school, they have no idea who someone in a black van could be, and that their kids are still trying to figure who they are so they've been into trouble here and there." Morgan continued, eyes looking around the table."
"Wait, so that means that this guy or..girl..is a secret. They don't talker to their parent's about him or her, they don't have posters of him or her in their room, they keep it a close secret for the popular kids only."
"Exactly." Morgan replied, nodding, "So, what we do, is talk to these kids friends. See if they know whats up, which I'm sure they do."
"We're going to interrogate some teens?" Emily laughed, sitting back with a a childish smile played on her lips.
"Sounds like our best bet." Morgan replied, looking over to Hotch.
He nodded, "We'll be leaving as soon as possible."
