This is the next to last chapter! I'm still kind of debating how exactly I want to end this story, but I'll figure it out. Normally I just go with the flow and whatever ends up happening is what I go with.
Spencer returned to work very slowly. For the first week or so back in his apartment, he was still nauseous and sore. He found he would flinch whenever someone touched him, even so much as brushing against his shoulder as they passed. He didn't trust any women he hadn't known before the whole plane accident. He read in the paper that Madame was on death row for being responsible for the deaths of men in several countries. Miss Rosie was being imprisoned for life by plea of insanity. There was no mention of their successful kidnapping of an FBI agent, which was good. The last thing Reid wanted was for people to recognize him and ask him questions about what he had been through. He didn't want to talk about it to anyone.
When his stomach was settled enough for him to at without the chance of puking it back up, he returned to work, but wasn't allowed on the field yet because he was still healing from the surgery. So he worked from Quantico, filling out papers, helping the team over the phone, and working with Garcia (more like telling her what to look up and reading it over quickly to get the information to the team faster). Sometimes though, he would find himself zoning out, no longer able to focus on whatever was in front of him.
Garcia was the one who first noticed this, after having tried to get his attention for 5 minutes without an answer. She knew he was sometimes a bit slow to realize he was being spoken too whenever he was really focused on something, but he hadn't turned a page in the stack of papers he'd been reading for the whole time. He assured her he was fine, just trying to put together the pieces of whatever he read so it made more sense. Of course, Garcia wasn't entirely convinced and brought this up in conversation with Morgan later that day.
"I dunno, it was really weird." She told him. "I mean, I've seen him get distracted and I know he's fallen asleep a few times, but only during the paper work after a long case or when he first came back after Maeve. But he's never been this out of it. I don't even think he was this out of it after he was shot in neck-"
"Baby girl, relax." Morgan interrupted her. "He's just getting back to work after a pretty traumatic experience. He's going to need some time to get back into the flow of things. Give him some time and he'll be back to sprouting out random facts that most people don't know and emptying the snack machine practically on his own."
"Okay, if you say so…" She didn't sound convinced, but they said their goodbyes and hung up, and she set back to work on looking up background information on suspects and baby animals.
Later on that week, the team was out on another case and Reid and Garcia were left in Quantico again, helping the team from home. The were close to closing the case, they just needed to find out where the unsub lives. Morgan called Garcia.
"Has Reid got the geographic profile up yet? He's not answering his phone again." Morgan asked. For the past few days Reid hadn't been answering his phone right away since the ringer was broken and he didn't always hear it. Every time he went to get it fixed, however, another case would come up or he would be too tired to go deal with it.
Garcia poked her head out of the door to look for him. "I believe he did, but he was doing the potty dance for the past half hour and since I don't see him, I'm assuming he gave in and scurried off to the little geniuses room." She said, and then smiled despite the fact the team couldn't see her. "And I was right. He's coming back out now."
Walking out of her office and down to where he was, she called out to him, "Reid, do you have the geographic profile yet?"
"Yeah." He nodded, but seemed distracted as he picked up the marker and circled in red the area the unsub would most likely be hiding. After rattling off the street names, the two waited for Morgan's reply.
"There is no Smith street here." He finally said. "And no Wetters road either."
Reid made a confused face. "Of course are."
"No, there aren't. Officers here say there's no such streets around here."
"But you're in Springfield-"
"Springfield? Kid, we're in Gladeville. There's no Springfield anywhere near us."
This just seemed to confuse Reid further. "I could've sworn you said Springfield-"
"Well, I didn't! Gladeville Kentucky, man, not Springfield! Never mind, we'll get a geographic profile going here." And then Morgan hung up. This case for some reason he seemed to take personally, and it was making him short tempered.
"How did I hear the wrong town?" Reid asked, hurrying over to his desk and flipping through the stack of files for the one on this case. He looked through the papers and sure enough, the town was Gladeville. Skimming the rest of his cases, none of them took place in Springfield. What had made him think Springfield?"
"Don't stress so much, it's not good for you." Garcia said. "Everyone makes mistakes sometimes-"
"I don't mess up on things like this. Gladeville doesn't sound anything like Springfield. They're not even close to each other!" Reid ran his fingers through his hair as he sat heavily in his chair. "I haven't been on any cases from any Springfield for a while, and there's several of them across the country. Why did I think they said that?"
"Calm down, they can't be mad at you-"
"The unsub could be hunting his next victim because I messed up the geographic-"
"Hey, boy genius! Look at me!" Garcia snapped. "Stop blaming yourself. You aren't the only one on the team to ever make a mistake. We all do it. It's human. Now lets go get ice cream from the vending machine-"
"I don't want any."
"You love ice cream."
"My stomach is already bothering me, dairy will only make it worse." Reid shook his head. "Coffee. I want coffee." He got up and made his way quickly to the coffee machine, pouring himself a cup and adding enough sugar to send a diabetic to the hospital. Garcia frowned. Something wasn't right with him, but no one else seemed to notice it but her.
The next few days passed without another incident like that happening, and Reid was finally allowed back on the field after getting his stitches removed and the doctor approving that he was okay to return the field. By now, he seemed much more comfortable around the girls of the team, but still he would jump whenever anyone touched him. He didn't like to be cornered, referring to sit on the isle seats if he sat around the table. But other than that, everything seemed normal. He was never left alone though, always having someone on the team with him since they were all afraid he would get kidnapped again. Of course, no one admitted to this.
As Morgan watched though, he began to notice little things about Spencer still seemed off. For one, he was rubbing his eyes a lot, as if he had a migraine, but he insisted he didn't. He would squint at things, as if he couldn't see them clearly and had taken to wearing his glasses again instead of the contacts. (A/N: The Criminal Minds Wiki says he has eye cataracts in the first degree or something like that…? I'm just gonna play around with that for a bit)
He would tilt his head every now and then as if he heard something, or he would stare at nothing for a while with a confused look. Then he would snap out of it and say something so Reid-like that everyone would seem to forget about it. It wasn't like he hadn't gotten distracted during other cases before.
He was in the car with Morgan and JJ when something happened that confused them both.
"I didn't say anything." Reid said out of no where from the backseat, looking confused himself.
"What? We didn't ask if you said anything." JJ rose an eye brow as she looked through the rearview mirror at him.
"You didn't?" Reid tilted his head. "Oh."
He said nothing else on the matter and refused to discuss it any further with anyone. JJ and Morgan knew exactly what was on Reid's mind now though, and they were both worried for him.
It wasn't until the next month though that the team was sure this was more than a phase. Morgan, Garcia, and JJ had all gone to Hotch and told them their fears.
"Something isn't right, Hotch. I thought he was past the age range for that to kick in though." Morgan said, shaking his head.
"He is. But there are exceptions to every rule, especially with mental health, and you all know that."
"But what do we do? We can't-"
He was interrupted by a sudden uproar outside the room. Rushing to the window of Hotch's office overlooking the bullpen he spotted several of the other agents with their hands up, a few with their guns drawn, all looking at one person who was aiming a gun at an empty chair. That one person was Reid, standing up and shaking like a leaf, face red, gun aimed at the back of an empty chair and his hand on the trigger. Everyone was afraid to move toward him, because he had backed himself into the corner of his desk so no one could get near him without coming from the front. Within a few seconds Hotch, JJ, Morgan, and Garcia were rushing out of the room.
"Reid, put the gun down!" Morgan called. "Put it down, there's no one there!"
"They're back. I thought- I read that they were going away." Reid shook his head. As they got closer they could see the far away look in his eyes. Whatever he was seeing, no on else could. "Shut up, shut up!" He yelled at the chair, pulling one hand away from the gun to scratch roughly at his head.
"There's nothing there, Spence, put the gun down." JJ said in a soothing voice, but Reid turned his gun to her, looking terrified.
"Stay away from me!" He shouted, trying to back up but only finding the desk behind him.
"Everyone put your guns away. JJ, Garcia, go into a different room." Hotch said quietly to the other agents in the room before turning to Reid. "Who's there, Spencer?"
"Everyone." Reid whimpered, scratching at his head still. He was leaving red marks on the side of his face. "Everyone. I thought they were locked away, Hotch, far away. Different states. Why are they all here?"
"I don't know. They can't hurt you though, Spencer, not if you put your gun down." Hotch continued in as calm and soothing of a voice as he could manage. Internally, he was scared. The Reid he was used to was timid with his gun, the least likely on the team to ever take a shot at someone. Obviously, Reid wasn't all there at the moment.
"But-" Reid looked confused. He went from scratching his head to rubbing his eyes. "But they're telling me if I put it down they'll attack…"
Hotch made eye contact with Morgan and flicked his eyes towards Reid. They had worked together long enough that Morgan knew exactly what Hotch wanted him to do and he nodded, slowly moving to the side.
"But the team is right here, Reid, they can't hurt you. Not when we're all right here." Hotch insisted. Reid's hands were shaking terribly. He didn't seem to be in control of himself at all. Morgan was at the desk behind Reid's and making his way around to the side. Hotch would just have to try to keep Reid focused on him.
"No, they don't care. They never did, Hotch, you remember. You were there, none of them ever cared." Reid's finger twitched on the trigger. "They're going to attack me again."
"No they won't. You're safe here, Spencer, there's no one who can hurt you here." Hotch tried to assure him. Morgan was at the edge of Reid's desk, but the younger agent didn't seem to notice. His eyes were fixed on the empty chair. Hotch gave a slight nod and Morgan pounced forward, wrapping his arms around Reid and forcing him to drop the gun. This sent Spencer into a near panic and he screamed and yelled for someone to help him, before breaking down into tears and going limp, sobs racking his body. Hotch had already called an ambulance.
At the hospital later that night…
For safety reasons, they kept at least one of Spencer's arms restrained down, and the opposite leg so he couldn't fight his way out. After a few scans and tests and looking through his family's health records, the doctors were certain it was schizophrenia. At some point during the ride to the hospital, Reid had come back to reality, confused and not remembering anything about what had happened.
Now, he lay on the bed, half restrained with the rest of the team in the room with him. He would have to stay in the hospital until the rest of the tests came back, but he would most likely never be able to return to work.
"How do you feel?" Morgan asked, the last of the team to enter the room.
"In a way….relieved." Spencer answered after a few minutes, and looked up at Morgan. "I knew it would happen some day, I just didn't know when. Now that it happened….well, I don't have to be afraid of it happening anymore. I'm just glad it happened before I could've hurt someone."
The team felt their hearts break a little at that. How horrible must it have been for him, knowing th chances of him developing schizophrenia and knowing the history of mental illness in his family, going through every day knowing he might possibly have a mental break? Knowing that he might one day end up like the unsubs he spent the past 10 or so years tracking down?
No one was sure how to respond to that, and no one trusted their voices to actually speak. They had thought that when Prentniss had first found Reid on the plane that their youngest member, the baby of the team, would be dead. Then they got him back for a few short weeks, only to lose a part of him again. But in a way, they had all had the thoughts pass their minds that the only things that would end Reid's service to the BAU would be death or schizophrenia. So in a way, it was almost a relief to them too. Chances are, Reid would be put in an institution because of his actions in the office with the gun would label him as violent. They wouldn't have to worry about him being killed on the field or deal with any more close calls. They wouldn't have to worry about him having a mental breakdown during a case. The suspense was over.
One more chapter after this one, and then it's over. =(
I'm going to try to update What If soon, and then work on my other fanfiction for Infernal Devices books, finish reading the Harry Potter series (I know, I'm a little late with those…lol)) and maybe write a fanfiction for those, and then continue reading my WW2 books and try to finish moving into the new house and getting a barn built. Of course, books and horses come first. ;)