Reid's Miracle

Chapter Seven: Trust

By Ann Parker

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Oprah Winfrey once said, "I trust that everything happens for a reason, even when we're not wise enough to see it."

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Three days had passed in the hospital. The doctors felt it was safe for him to be discharged as long as he was monitored. He had at least another week before the physical aspect of withdrawal would fad away. It didn't appear that he had done any permanent damage to his major organs or nervous system. He was apparently very lucky, yet he didn't entirely feel that way. He knew what would be coming next. Sarah had said it herself the first day. Now the mental side would have to be examined, which meant talking about what happened. He didn't really want to relive his time with Tobias.

Currently he was pretending to be asleep, not in the mood to move right now. He could hear Sarah moving around the room, doing what he wasn't sure. Maybe getting the room ready for him to leave? He had no idea who else was here, but he was sure someone from the team was present. They somehow had managed to not be called to a case this whole time. Suddenly he heard Sarah sharply inhale, like she was wincing in pain. That almost made him open his eyes, but a voice stopped him.

"Did you aggravate you side?" asked Gideon. He should have guessed he would be the one here. Wait, what was wrong with Sarah's side? He decided to keep quiet.

"Probably," Sarah muttered, clearly not happy with where she sensed the conversation going.

"When did it happen?" Gideon continued. Sarah sighed.

"When I was trying to get that bathroom door open from the floor," she replied. There was a slight pause before she continued, "I'm not having it looked at so don't even start Jason."

"Why not?" he questioned. "How do you know it hasn't gotten worse?"

"Because," she almost yelled. "It doesn't hurt much more than it does every single day. It hurts when I get dressed, it hurts when I pick up my book bag, it…it hurts enough that a little bit more pain for a few days is not going to bother me." She finished, her voice laced in pain and anger. Reid had never heard her talk like that before. He couldn't stop himself from looking and slightly opened his eyes. What he saw was Gideon walk over to her and pull her into a hug. It sounded like a small sob escaped from her lips against his shoulder.

"Shh, it's alright, I'm sorry," he whispered as he rubbed her back with one of his hands. "Is this taking too much out of you? Bringing up too much pain?" he asked. There was no answer. "If you need to back away, I'll understand. The rest of us can take care of Reid." Wait, what was happening? Was Sarah going to leave him?

"No," she replied, defiant. She pulled slightly away from Gideon's grip. "I can handle this, I can. I won't just leave him." Separating from his embrace, she finished, looking in Reid's direction, causing him to quickly close his eyes. "I can't leave him." Reid fought the urge to smile at that comment. She really was going to be here for all of this.

Almost changing the subject, Gideon spoke up. "You know you don't have to tell him if it'll open the wound again, right?" Gideon couldn't stop himself from trying to protect her from the pain of her past.

Sarah laughed slightly, "You have got to be kidding me. This man, this incredible man, has blindly trusted me to take care of him. You, you trusted me to help you help him because I've been through something like this. I think he's earned the right to know what that was. I have to, no need to, tell him about my past."

She stopped for a minute, making Reid's mind race. So it wasn't an accident that they met when they did. Gideon set it all up. He should have known; Gideon never has visitors, at least not social visits. Wait, so that meant Gideon knew about the drugs, right? Why didn't he just confront him? Probably because he knew he'd just lie. He outsmarted him, the genius. Gideon knew he wouldn't want to talk about it with them, he could see his shield. But how did he know that Sarah could penetrate it? Could he even still trust her? One way to find out.

"Hey guys," he greeted, attempting to pretend he had just woke up. Sarah immediately looked at him and smiled. She walked over to his side.

"Hey you. You ready to go?" she asked, unaware he had been listening.

"I think so," he answered, attempting to search her eyes for any sign of distrust. "Hey Gideon, do you think you could leave us alone for a minute?" he asked, catching both Sarah and Gideon off guard.

"Sure," Gideon replied, "I'll check to make sure you paperwork is in order." With that he left them alone. Sarah watched the door close and then looked back at Reid. She immediately saw the look of hurt in his eyes.

"You heard our conversation, didn't you?" she asked with a sigh. Reid nodded. "What do you want to know? I tell you everything." Reid continued to look into her eyes, not finding any hint of lies, but he needed to hear it.

"Have you ever lied to me?" he asked.

"I have not," she replied without hesitation. "Jason did when we first met, well slightly anyway." Reid nodded, waiting for her to continue. "He was telling the truth when he said I just graduated and that I wanted to work for the BAU. However, I never asked for a tour of your office. That was his attempt at getting me to meet you." She stopped for a second, as if deciding how to word the rest. "He knew about the drugs, Spencer. The doctors told him when you got checked out at the hospital in Georgia. He also had a feeling that you took them from the scene. What he didn't know was if you were still using them and he said he didn't want to interrogate you about it. I'm guessing he thought you'd just lie."

"Probably," Reid replied. "But why did he think you could help?"

"You know, he wasn't completely forth coming about that with me. He claimed it was because since I had been addicted to the same drug, I would be able to figure out if you were still using a lot faster than he could. But I think there was more to it than that even though he didn't tell me," she finished.

"So why go through with it? If you didn't know me and you didn't fully buy his reason, why do this?" Reid pried.

"Because…" she stopped for a minute, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, she made sure to make direct eye contact with him. "Because for one, Jason has never lied to me and I trust him completely. I didn't think he would have asked for my help if he didn't need it. And secondly, I just felt, I guess a connection with you when walked up to your desk. When I looked into your eyes I felt like I could trust you."

Reid reached up and ran his fingers through her hair. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. "I felt that too," he stated with a smile.

She smiled back, "anything else you want to know?"

"Oh there's plenty, but that's good for now," he replied. She nodded. "Now, can you get me out of here?"

Sarah laughed, "Absolutely." She stood up and headed back to the door. "I'll go check on how Jason's doing with that paperwork, okay?"

Reid nodded and watched her leave the room. Although he didn't appreciate Gideon lying to him, he had a feeling he might have been right about asking for Sarah's help.

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