"Dr. Spencer Reid," a man drawled from across the room.
Spencer looked up at the sound of his name. He took one look at the man staring at him and sighed wearily. Karl Vanson. A sociopath that had killed fifteen people before they had caught up with him. Surely no good could come of this.
"Cracked up, ain't you," came the taunt.
"Don't listen to him," Bree insisted.
What were the odds of the two of them ending up in the same hospital? The statistics escaped him just now.
Vanson made no move. currently satisfied merely to gloat. "This is priceless. The man who put me away, locked in here with me."
"You should be in prison."
"But I'm not," Vanson said smugly. He stood up suddenly, the metal rungs of his seat shrieking against the floor. He began to walk slowly towards them.
Spencer didn't meet his gaze, just watched him come close out of the corner of his eye. He raised a hand to the side of his face and sighed again.
"This is beautiful, I never would've imagined. For all your inflated hubris, you're no better than me," Vanson wheedled, sounding amused.
"I'm nothing like you. You're a murderer who-"
"You killed people too!"
Spencer hesitated. "They were monsters."
"So were mine. Liars and thieves. Slanderers."
"They were killers and psychopaths just like you!"
Vanson grinned. "That makes it all right then?They had families too, you know. Tell me do you see their faces when you close your eyes to sleep?"
All the time. "I held a position of authority. I had the right to use force and sometimes it was necessary."
Vanson put a hand to his ear. "What's that? You used to...not anymore, mi amigo." He chuckled. "Your friends at the BAU put yoiu away didn't they? What happened? Their boy genius crack under the pressure?"
Spencer said nothing but turned paler still. That's more or less the truth anyway.
Vanson laughed again.
"That's enough," a female voice, rang out with authority.
All three of them turned. A woman stood a few feet away watching them. Obviously, one of the doctors and not a resident, as she wore the traditional white coat. Spencer considered this for a moment. Maybe it didn't matter, a resident could have stolen the coat and be playing out a fantasy. He had seen crazier things since being holed up in here.
"Mr. Vanson, you're out of line. And how did you even get here? You belong in Ward C."
He smirked at her. "Not my fault if the hired help are sloppy."
She fixed him in a level gaze which wiped the smirk from his face. And then she snapped her fingers. One of the interns who had been chatting up a couple of residents jumped at the sound. She berated the poor kid, "How incompetent can you be? You were in here with this going on and you just stand over there like a imbecile letting it happen...take this man back where he belongs. And don't sweat this, everyone makes mistakes, tommorrow you won't be coming back to make another."
The intern hastened over to Vanson and reached for his arm. Vanson gave the boy a chilly glare stopping him in the act. But he suffered himself to be led away, leering at Spencer as this happened.
Once they were out of sight the authoritarian image dissolved. She let out a sigh of relief. Now, he almost recognized her.
"Dr. Reid, are you alright," she asked, her face touched with concern.
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
"D.C. Four years ago. Nathan Harris was my first real client after getting my doctorate. So his case was kind of special to me. And I remember that you kept coming by to check on him. Until, of course he was processed from the general hospital into another facility like this one."
"Oh yeah...I've kept tabs as much as I can but mostly they wouldn't let me speak with him."
"Last I heard, he's taken up photography," she told him.
He nodded glad to know that the boy was improving somewhat. "But I forgot you're name."
She laughed. "Glad to know I made an impression," she laughed and he grinned sheepishly. "Well, officially its Dr. Jakobsdatter," she said, grimacing at her own name. "But I let people call me Winnie."
"Than I'm Spencer," he told her.
She tilted her head slightly and gave him a small smile. "Fair enough."
