The Way You Left Me
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters and situations. I am simply a vessel of imagination that uses said property.
A/N: I am going to start making longer chapters, starting with this one.
Thanks for the reviews. And if you have any suggestions, let's hear them.
Chapter Four
Reid left the lobby first. He didn't want to say the wrong thing. There was really nothing to say.
Garcia is dead.
As he walked through the parking lot, he could see news crews lining up outside of the Quantico gates. He never liked the media because they didn't seem to think about the victims.
Garcia was a victim.
Reid shook his head and unlocked his car door. When he got into his car, his vision blurred and tears began to fall. But he wasn't going to let himself fully cry so close to the crime scene.
As he drove through the back entrance, his placed his thoughts on his car. This was his bluish-green, four door, automatic car. It wasn't expensive or too cheap. It was perfect for him.
I would have been driving home in a ridiculously expensive car if Garcia was not there to help.
She haggled with the car salesman for almost an hour. Reid only had to sign his name on some forms. He trusted her judgment on things like that.
He was home in record time. Reid didn't say anything to his doorman, not even a smile. Uncharacteristically, he took the elevator to his third floor apartment with the intention to get inside as quick as possible. But he froze when he reached his front door.
Finally, after turning the key in the lock, Reid pushed the door open and walked into his new apartment. He just moved here after his old apartment building caught on fire. He was hardly able to save his firebox filled with important documents and his favorite book, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.
He took a shower and put on his new favorite pajamas; they had books on the pants and a reading penguin on the shirt. He cleaned up the place a little bit and made a cup of mint tea. He glanced over at a large, bright orange box by the kitchen. He remembered Garcia told him she put it in his apartment while he was away working on the case; it was her housewarming gift.
She was like a mother to me.
Reid remembered when he was on crutches and had to stay at Quantico with Garcia while the rest of the team travelled. The experience was both troublesome and fun. It was Garcia that came by his apartment and made sure he could get around okay. She scolded him about having to navigate around so many books while on crutches. Reid secretly believed his old apartment burned so fast because it was seventy percent books. When he was able to walk again, she gave him a crocheted doll that looked like him; it had all of the injuries he received since he joined the team.
She told me that Little Spencer couldn't handle anything else, so I should be more careful.
He wanted Little Spencer now. Frantically, he searched his apartment for the doll. After thirty minutes, the end result was no doll and a messy apartment. Reid sat on his couch and tried to think about where he put it.
It was supposed to be in a basket under the bed.
He searched the under the bed again and even in the closet and in the pantry. Still there was no doll. And then it occurred to him what happened.
That's right. It burned in the fire.
Defeated, he sat on the couch again and sobbed. The emotion of the day hit him hard and his eyes filled with tears. While he was wiping his eyes, he glanced over at Garcia's gift. With a sigh, he walked over to the bright box and carefully removed the paper.
Inside was a note in Garcia's handwriting:
Here is another Little Spencer. I burned his shoes a little to represent the fire. There is also a blanket for you to keep for when you need a hug. –With many loves, P.G.
He took out the doll. It looked just like the other one, except with slightly burned tennis shoes. He smiled for the first time that day, but it didn't stay on his face for long.
The blanket was thick and hand knitted. It was both brightly colored and dark. When he held it up, it was longer than him and could go around his body twice.
New tears ran down his face as he walked over to the couch with the blanket around him and Little Spencer in his arms. It felt like a hug and smelled like Garcia.
Spencer Reid curled up on the couch and cried himself to sleep.