A/N: I apologise that this took soooooo long, but I have had one illness after another lately :( But finally, here's the next chapter! This is pretty much how Reid feels about the others leaving and disappearing. So read on!

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.

Reid slept well for most of the night- as well as he usually did when JJ was lying beside him. As dawn crept closer though, Reid sleep became more fitful and restless. And what he so was so vivid, so real, he couldn't believe he was dreaming.

Reid was lying on the floor of a pitch-black room. He couldn't see anything around him, and he was alone. Totally alone. Or so he thought.

Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss appeared before Reid, just standing there, smiling at him. Reid's face broke into an expression of relief, and he tried to walk towards them. But he couldn't. There was an invisible wall between him and his two teammates, and he couldn't get to them.

"Hotch! Prentiss!" Reid called out, trying to catch their attention. "Hotch! Emily!" The two agents continued to stand still, not even reacting to Reid calling out. He tried to push through to them, and continued to call out their names, but to no avail. Eventually he gave up, out of breath.

"What are you doing?" Reid managed to get out in between breaths. "Why can't I get to you? Why aren't you here?"

"Because we're leaving you, Reid," Hotch and Prentiss chorused in chilling voices.

"What?" Reid gasped. "But why?"

"Because we don't care about you at all," Prentiss replied, still in that chilling voice. "We never have."

"You were always that whiny little kid to me," Hotch said. "Not even able to fire a gun properly… too young to be in the FBI, too young to be in the BAU, and not good enough to be a real FBI field agent."

"You're always the kid in the back room no one really notices or cares about, the one who gives all the facts to the important people, who then do all the important work," Prentiss added. "None of us ever liked your facts, Reid. You were always just annoying- the most annoying person I have ever met."

"Getting suspended was a blessing in disguise," Hotch continued. "Now I don't have to put up with you every day."

"And I definitely made the right decision in quitting," said Prentiss. "I'd rather deal with the politics of foreign service than with you."

"How… how could you say such a thing?" Reid stammered, confused and hurt.

"Because it's true," Prentiss and Hotch said in unison. "Goodbye, Spencer Reid. We hope we never see you again."

The figures of Hotch and Prentiss slowly retreated, until they were no longer there. "No!" Reid cried out, and the barrier finally broke. He tried to run towards them, but they were already gone. Then another figure appeared. Gideon.

"Gideon," Reid breathed. "Gideon, where are you?"

"I'm right here, Spencer," Gideon replied. "Right in front of you."

Reid reached out to touch Gideon, but his hand went right through him, like a ghost. "No, you're not," Reid said. "You're not here."

"You're right. I'm not here," Gideon agreed. "I've had enough of all of it. The job, and everything that goes with it."

"Even me?" Reid whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer.

"Yes," Gideon said, speaking in that same chilling voice as Hotch and Prentiss. "Even you. Especially you."

"But- but you care about me. You brought me into the BAU!" Reid protested.

"I was only using your for your brain," Gideon said. "I never really cared about you- I only wanted you to trust me, so you'd work for me, do anything I say. Luckily, I won't have to do that anymore."

"Gideon… please…" A single tear rolled down Reid's cheek.

"Aw, the kid's finally showing his age!" Gideon said mockingly. "You were always just the runt to us, kid. The annoying runt, who had nothing but facts. How long do you reckon it will take JJ to realise that, and leave you?" JJ appeared behind Gideon then- she appeared shadowy, not solid like Gideon did.

"No," Reid said. "No. JJ won't leave me. Not after what we went through."

"She's going to leave you, Spencer," Gideon declared. "She's not going to stay with you. Why would anyone want to stay with you?"

As soon as Gideon finished speaking, the figure of JJ faded until she disappeared, a twisted, teasing smirk on her face. "No…" Reid repeated, his voice and his heart broken. "She wouldn't leave. Why would she leave me?"

"Because she doesn't love you," Gideon answered. "None of us do. That's why I'm leaving too." Gideon disappeared as well, and Reid was alone. Totally alone. He fell to his knees, the tears falling thick and fast from his eyes now.

"No…" he continued to moan, his sobs getting louder and louder. "No… No… No!"

Then a noise, so soft at first that Reid thought he hadn't really heard it, broke through Reid's sobs. It was so low Reid couldn't make out what it was, but it got louder and louder until Reid could make out what it was. It was a voice. A female voice- a voice Reid loved. And as it got even louder still, Reid could make out was it was saying. The voice was whispering his name. "Spencer… Spencer. Spencer, wake up, please."

Why was she telling him to wake up? Reid wasn't asleep, was he? "Spencer! Spencer, it's me, please wake up! Please, it's okay, I'm here!"

Reid suddenly jolted back to awareness, and realised that the sheets on the bed had been thrown around, and that someone was holding him down. He fought against those restraints for a moment, but then that female voice spoke to him again. "Spencer, it's alright! It's me, JJ!"

Reid stopped fighting, and looked up at the woman. Sure enough, it was JJ, looking at him with concern. "JJ…" he breathed. "It really is you. You're here."

"Of course it's me," JJ said, confused. "Why wouldn't I be here?"

"But I thought… I thought…" Reid's eyes began to prickle, and he attempted in vain to hold the tears back. Realising his efforts were futile, Reid let the tears fall, running down his cheeks and staining his face.

"Oh, Spencer…" JJ pulled Reid into a sitting position and wrapped her arms around him. At first Reid did nothing, he just remained motionless as JJ held him to her. Then he whispered her name, and his head was on her shoulder. His tears were running down his cheeks and onto her bare skin, but JJ didn't care. All she cared about was comforting Reid.

After a while, JJ spoke. "Did you have a nightmare?" she asked gently.

Reid lifted his head from JJ's shoulder, wiping away the last of his tears, and nodded. "It was stupid, I know. But it was a nightmare," he answered.

"It wasn't stupid; please don't think that," JJ said. "Everybody has nightmares. All of us. Even me."

Reid looked at JJ, shocked. "You? But you're so strong, so brave. What could you possibly have nightmares about?"

"I'm also the most emotionally involved, Spencer," JJ pointed out. "I have plenty to have nightmares about- I've had plenty about being wrong on a case, more victims winding up dead. But lately, if I've had a nightmare at all, they've been about you. About you leaving me. About you… dying."

"Jayje…" Reid had no idea what to say to that. "I'm not going anywhere. It's… it's you I'm afraid is going to leave."

"Me? Leave?" JJ was confused. "Why would I do that?"

"It's what I dreamed about," Reid confessed. "You leaving… and that Hotch, Prentiss and Gideon left because of me. Because they don't want to put up with me anymore."

"I'm not going to leave you, Spencer," JJ promised. "I am never, ever, going to leave you. Do you understand?" Reid didn't respond, so JJ just stared him down until he nodded at her. "I love you, Spencer Reid. It was just a dream. That's all. Just a dream."

"Yeah, I know," Reid sighed. "It's just… you know I have issues, JJ. Abandonment is definitely the biggest one."

JJ leaned forward and kissed Reid gently. "How about we both agree that we're never going to leave each other, all right?"

"How do you know?" Reid asked.

"What?"

"How do you know you'll never leave me?" Reid asked again.

"Because I can't imagine my life without you anymore," JJ answered. "I've tried, just to see if it's possible, but I- I can't. It hurts me too much- it kills me to imagine my life without you in it. That's how I know."

"Jayje…"

"Spence, let me finish," JJ said. "I need you to trust me. I need you to believe every word I just said, because they are all true. Do you understand?"

"I already trust you; I always have. It would take something truly massive for that to change. It's me I don't trust," Reid admitted. JJ began to speak, but Reid held up a hand to stop her. "I don't trust myself to not stuff this up. I don't trust myself to stay on the right path anymore. I don't trust myself to be everything you want."

"But I trust you," JJ declared. "I trust you to not stuff this up. I trust you to- in fact I know you will- stay on the right path. And you already are everything I want, just by being you."

Reid didn't say anything- he just took JJ into his arms and held her to him. JJ didn't try to speak, and she didn't try to make Reid speak; him holding her was answer enough.

It was a long moment that the two of them remained in that position, only jolting apart when Reid's alarm went off. "Guess that means you have to go back to your room, before we get caught," Reid sighed.

"Or I could always stay here and let Morgan find us," JJ suggested playfully. "It wouldn't be such a bad thing if he found out about us."

"It probably wouldn't," Reid agreed, "but there is always the chance that Strauss could find us. You need to get back to your own room and get dressed. I'll go see if the coast is clear." He gave JJ a quick, soft kiss before getting up from his bed and opening the door slightly. "There's no one out here," he whispered. "Quick, go now."

JJ leapt lightly from Reid's bed and quickly moved towards the door, pausing only to give him one last, quick kiss. "I love you," she said to him.

"I love you too," Reid murmured, before JJ quickly darted out of the room and he closed the door behind her.

Almost as soon as JJ left the room, Reid good mood faded. He let out a sad sigh and walked back over to his bed, slumping down onto it with his head in his hands. JJ's words had reassured him that she wasn't going to leave- at least for the time being- but they hadn't done anything to his thoughts about Prentiss, Hotch or Gideon. Admittedly he'd barely mentioned them, and he'd been too focused on the thought of losing JJ, but now his dream about the others had come to the fore.

Reid had long thought he was a burden on the team- the only reason he was there was his intelligence, after all. If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have lasted very long in the Academy. He'd failed pretty much every physical test there had been, and he'd barely passed his firearms qualification. In fact, Reid remembered while pulling his clothes out of his go bag and getting dressed, he had failed once since then. The team had relied on him, but they'd also had to carry him through. Was it too much to think that they'd finally gotten sick of him?

As Reid reached back into his go bag for his tie, something else slipped out and he picked it up. It was a picture of the entire team, taken less than a month ago, after Reid had admitted his problems to JJ and let her help him. They all looked so happy, every single one of them. Reid and JJ sat next to each other in the photo, as close as they could get without drawing suspicions. Even so, they were gravitating towards each other subconsciously. If someone on the team looked closely enough at the picture- really, really close- they could probably see how the two youngest agents felt about each other.

So happy, Reid thought to himself as he gazed down at the picture. Then why had they left?

Suddenly, there was a knock on Reid's door. "Hey, kid!" Morgan called. "You ready? It's time to go, Strauss is waiting!"

"I'm coming!" Reid yelled back, quickly putting his tie over his neck and tightening it. He took one last, wistful look at the photograph of the team, before tossing it on his bed and walking out of his room to join Morgan.

A/N: So there you go! Reid is blaming himself for Hotch, Gideon and Prentiss leaving... what's JJ going to do about that?
So time to review, I really love to hear what you guys think! And who knows, maybe reviews have healing powers? :P