Heads I Win Tails You Lose

In The End It All Comes Down To A Toss Of A Coin

As always I do not own any part of ABC, CBS, or Criminal Minds. For entertainment purposes only. Any resemblance to person's living, dead or fictional is purely coincidental.

Thanks,

Cinny

Chapter 10

Reid went to Carrie's house, it was locked up tightly and his car was parked on her street behind hers. He banged on the door and when no one answered he tried her cell again. Still no answer there either. 'Oh God!' He was beginning to panic. He wished Morgan was here, he would break the door down. Think Spencer think. He ran to the potted plants and moved one, there was the key. He opened the door and the place was quiet. He had his gun out and he moved slowly through each room, nothing was out of the ordinary. He went back into her kitchen and then he saw them, his keys on the counter and an envelope under it. 'Gideon.' The voice haunted him. He shook his head and held the letter afraid to open it up.

.

Hotch Morgan and Emily and a sea of police officers waited outside of the Lessing house as soon as Hotch gave the order Morgan kicked in the door. They cleared the first floor immediately and then shots rang out from the second floor. A few minutes later one of the local police officers lie dead and Philip Lessing bled out moments later, shot by another local cop. "Where are they!" Morgan shouted at him as he gulped and gurgled taking his last bloody breath.

"You got to see this." Emily yelled from the master bedroom. She covered her mouth and nose, trying to avoid the smell, which was impossible.

Morgan came into the room and looked at the body in the bed. "God this is what he was doing, covering a corpse?"

Jan Lessing could hear voices and she tried to open her eyes. The fatigue was getting to her and she felt like she was near death. How many times did she hope for it, pray for it and now when it was near by all she could think of was 'someone could save me.'

She did the only thing she could she started moving her fingers.

"Morgan she moved!"

Morgan spun around and looked at the woman, nothing. He was about to tell Emily she imagined it when the woman's hand moved again.

She traced an s over and over then she traced an o and another s.

Morgan said, "S.O.S. she is writing s distress signal." He began to pull away the dead skin from her face. The burn scars stopped him at first but when she opened her eyes he looked into them and said, "It's going to be alright, your safe now."

Emily lifted her hand she looked at her fingers each one had a rough callous on the tip. "How long do you think she was drawling that S.O.S.?"

"From the moment she came here." Morgan surmised.

Reid's hands were shaking and tears stung his eyes as he opened the letter.

"Dear Spencer, I am putting my mother into a nursing home and for the first time in my life I finally feel free. Thank you for everything you did for me. I know I can move on with my life now. I am going to sell the house and as you read this I am on my way back to Chicago. You told me last night that you shouldn't have kissed me, that I would regret it one day. I don't and I never will. Kissing you and spending the night with you was the best thing I ever did. I love you Spencer Reid and I don't regret it. –Carrie"

Reid sunk to the floor sitting with his back against the kitchen cabinets. She wasn't sorry she kissed him, she didn't regret making love, and she loves him, but yet she, like everyone else he loved, left. Tears rolled down his face, she didn't regret it but he did.

.

Not one corpse was recovered, the skin and tissue taken off of Jan Lessing was going for DNA testing. Emily was praying it didn't turn up to belong to their loved ones. He had to have had a place he worked. The house was not where he did it and they were frantically trying to find JJ and Rossi. Jan Lessing made it to the hospital where she slipped into a comma and died later that night. Carrie never returned any of Reid's phone calls and the team was in a crisis as time ticked by and they worried that if JJ and Rossi were alive how long could they stay that way without food and water. Every resource was being utilized but yet in the end, did it really matter?

THE END

Song quote comes from Linkin Park "in the end" watch for a one shot story later.