--Hi!!--

9

"What the hell just happened?!" Morgan bellowed. Chaos started almost instantly. People ran screaming. Cars swerved and crashed into each other in front of us. Hotch swerved to avoid the collision and pulled off to the side of the road. We all jumped out simultaneously, drawing our guns. I looked back at the police car that had pulled in behind us, looking past the front seats and through the linked mesh.

He was grinning at me. His tongue struck out at the side of his mouth.

"Hotch what the hell just happened?" Morgan bellowed.

"I, I…" Hotch seemed to be at a loss for words.

I couldn't move. I shook my head at him. His grin broadened. I darted over to car.

"Roll down the window!" I demanded. The officer shook his head. I pulled the badge out of my pocket and shoved it against the window. "Last time I ask nicely!" The man nodded. I moved to the back window and wishing it would go down faster.

"Can I help you Doc?" He said, still grinning.

"You lied! You said if we got here in time you wouldn't do it! You said-" He laughed, interrupting me.

"Ah, ah, ah, Doc. You remember what I said when I first let you play?" He asked. I thought for a moment.

Come with a gun, I kill your friends. Don't come at all, I kill someone. Come with your friends or police… I blow up a school.

"You're serious? You blew up that school because-"

"Who said it was just one?" He said slyly. I couldn't find words.

"Get him downtown." I said quietly. And his laugh was cut off by the window closing. I watched the car drive away, unable to look at anything else.

I turned and walked back to everyone else.

"We can't do anything else here," J.J. said. She was silent for a moment. "How many people were in there Hotch?" Hotch exhaled slowly.

"About thirty." He said. I winced and turned away.

"Why did he do it?" Morgan asked angrily. "He said if we got here in time he'd deactivate the bombs! What the hell went wrong?!"

"Me, it's my fault," I said. I tried to look away from them when they gave me the looks they did.

"Reid I doubt this had anything to do with-" Prentice began.

"No," I interrupted. "He told me the first time we saw him here that if I showed up to see him and you or the police were with me, he'd blow up a school. And he did," No one spoke for awhile. "He said there were more bombs." I said.

"Then we have to go find out where they are." Hotch said.


I felt sick when I saw the school explode on the news. I felt so relieved when I remembered they had evacuated the children. But there were cops in there too. Cops with families, and kids and friends and parents. That made me sick too.

I saw the cars pull up outside. A cop car followed by the black SUVs I saw only too often. I waited for them to get out. I waited to see if everything was okay. Then I saw what got out of the back of the police car. He smiled at me when he walked through the doors. I scowled at him, my fists clenched. He continued to grin broadly.

"Hey Rachel," Penelope said, filtering through some files she had piled in her hands. She was walking right toward the officer and the Joker both without paying attention. "I was looking at those numbers you wanted me to-" She looked up too late. She almost ran right into him. "Oh my God!" She squealed before she backed away so fast she almost fell down. He laughed. She walked swiftly over to me, never taking her eyes off of him.

"O-okay," She said shakily. "Next time please warn me before I run into a madman." I nodded. He turned his head once we were out of the usual line of vision. And he didn't stop looking at us until he turned the corner.

"I can't believe we actually got him," Morgan said, appearing suddenly behind me. "Sorry." He said, noticing he had startled me and Garcia.

"I can't believe that school still blew up after what he said." She said.

"Yeah…" Morgan said, trailing off. I looked around him, seeing everyone else enter the station, looking more disheveled than before. But Spence was the one that worried me the most. He looked angry. No he looked past angry, he looked pissed. That in itself was a phenomenon. He walked past me without even looking in my direction. I followed him. I think he knew I was there but he said nothing. He walked into the same empty office we had a few days earlier. He

"Spence?" I said quietly. He said nothing still. He shoved his hair out of his face and shook his head a few times. He was thinking, I saw it in his eyes, and whatever he was thinking about was making him angrier by the second. "Spence I saw what happened-" He scoffed and turned around. "If you think that's your fault-" I began. He turned around abruptly, fury in those eyes that were usually so gentle.

"It is Rachel," He growled. "I was, so stupid. I didn't think that the rules before still applied but I was wrong. He blew the school up because I brought police and everyone else with me to arrest him. So he blew the school anyway and he says there's more!" I flinched. "Thirty men and women are dead because I didn't think! If I wouldn't have been so stupid and taken another second just to wonder if maybe the level of the game had changed but the rules were still in tact, maybe those people would be alive!" His face was red, his fists were clenched. I didn't think I'd ever say it, but I was scared of Spencer Reid. "And it's all because I wasn't smarter than that bastard!" He turned and rammed his fist into the wall next to him. Over and over and over again. "DAMN IT!" He yelled repeatedly.

I was still wincing every time he yelled. I felt tears come to my eyes and I started to cry no matter what I tried to do to stop. I leaned up against the back wall, sobbing. I put my hand over my mouth and tried to look away from the terrifying sight. I couldn't see my Spence anywhere.

He stopped finally and collapsed to his knees, blood on his hands. "Damn it!" He breathed. He turned and looked up at me.


I'd never been so angry in my life. That's why I was caving in the dry wall. I'd never felt stupid until now. I didn't even hear Rachel until I sank to my knees. The blood left my face, the pounding of my heart died down to where I could barely feel it like normal.

I looked up at her and felt my heart break. She was staring at me, crying. I saw fear in her eyes and realized what I had done. I stood, ignoring the pain pulsating through my bloodied hands and walked toward her slowly. The anger was gone. The guilt was suppressed. All I cared about right now was her. My girlfriend was crying and I had to make her stop. I hated it when girls cried. Especially ones I cared about. My heart twisted at the terror that filled her face as I got closer.

"Rachel," I said gently. "It's okay, I'm sorry." The fear faded, the tears stayed. She wrapped her arms around me and cried. I got the blood off of my hands as best as I could and stroked her hair.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "Rachel I didn't mean… I'm not…" I couldn't find the right words. "I… I just…God I'm sorry I-" She placed a finger to my lips and rested her head against my chest, her sobs subsided. "I feel so stupid." I said after awhile.

"You didn't know." She said hoarsely.

"It was something I should have thought of."

"Spence," She looked up at me, her eyes still red and filled with tears. "Please, don't. What's done is done and it's nobody's fault." I nodded. She caressed my cheek.

"I'm so sorry," I repeated. "And I love you."

"I love you too," She whispered. "And never let me see my Spence go away again," I nodded. She looked behind me. "I think they're going to interrogate him." She said. I nodded again and pulled her close.

"They won't let me talk to him. He knows me too well." I said. She looked up at me again.

"So, what are you going to do?" She asked. I pulled her head to my chest.

"Hold you."


They were coming to talk to me now. Probably to find out where I put the other bombs. I smile at the thought that they think they've stopped me. Wonder where Doc is? He likes to play. He won't admit it but he does. I look around the room, knowing they're all most likely drawing straws to see who comes to talk to me. I smiled again. I licked one of the scars that I remember getting so well.

They'd all see shortly what kind of games I play. And they'd never see what I'm about to do coming.

--Uh-oohh...--