Disclaimer: see my profile

A/n hey all... The alerts haven't been working so I haven't responded to reviews. I will get to them sometime today. Thanks for reading.

Memories and an Ultimatum.

"Emily… You need to stay calm. You heard what the nurse said. They'll kick me out of here if you don't," Morgan reminded her. He reached over and picked up her hand to hold it.

"I'll be more upset if I have to lay here and answer IAB questions. You know they'll try to make it sound like I'm protecting Reid." She squeezed his hand very hard. "I'm not going to incriminate Reid. He didn't do this and you know it." She whispered.

"I know… Okay, I'll do the interview, but if you get to feeling upset, we're done."

"I just want to get out of here. I hate hospitals."

Morgan grinned at his friend. He reached over and touched the bag hanging next to her, the tubing led to an IV that infused her arm. He watched as the scarlet, life-giving blood followed its course into her arm. He shivered. How many more times would he have to play witness to a good friend lying in a hospital bed after being shot and nearly killed. How many more times would their luck hold until one of them…

"Morgan?"

He yanked his eyes away from the blood. He forced a smile onto his unwilling lips. "Okay… Close your eyes and take a deep breath."

She shut her eyes and began to breathe in and out.

"I want you to think about last night. You were with Reid in the parking lot of his apartment building. It's cold… The wind is blowing in your hair and freezing your cheeks. You can hear the sound of cars on the road next to the parking lot. You can see the headlights as they pass. You can see Reid standing there talking to you. What are you talking about?"

"He called me because he found something in his apartment that upset him."

"What did he find?"

Reid opened the door to his apartment and gestured for her to come in without so much as a "Hello Emily..."

She followed her distraught teammate into his living room. She'd only been here once before when she'd helped take care of him after his shooting. It looked the same as it had months before, everything in place, no dust or clutter in sight. Except for his messenger bag, this lay haphazardly on the floor in the middle of the room.

"What's wrong Reid?" She followed him into the kitchen

He stood staring at the refrigerator. "You were right!" He said quietly and she noticed his face had gone grayish white.

"Why?"

She touched his arm and he jumped yanking back out of her reach. "Just open the door and look inside."

"You're scaring me."

"Please Emily… Just open the door. I - I c-can't d-do it."

She opened the door and stared in confusion at a small vase perched on the top shelf of the appliance. It held two flowers and had a red ribbon tied around its neck.

"I don't understand." She glanced back to see Reid standing away as though the fridge were a bomb that might go off at any moment.

"T-the f-flowers," He pointed at the vase. "S-she p-put t-them t-there… I s-should h-have l-listened t-to y-you. I'm s-sorry."

She shut the refrigerator door and went to him. "Reid! Who is she? Why are you so terrified?"

His arm trembled under her hand as though someone passed a light electrical charge through his skin.

"Reid!" She shook his arm.

"Her n-name's Dr. Clarissa Thompson. I m-met her in c-college. She was one of my professors. I didn't know when I met her that s-she had an m-mental illness. Isn't that r-rich… I l-lived with a p-paranoid s-schizophrenic, I s-should h-have k-known."

"Sit down and take a couple of deep breaths Reid. Tell me exactly what happened.

He told her everything. How the lovely Dr. Thompson seduced him even though he'd just turned sixteen. How he'd been unable to stay away from her even though he'd known it was wrong because of their age difference and her position as a figure of trust in his life. He explained how someone had tipped off the Dean about them and how Dr. Thompson ended up in an institution after she lost her job.

"She wouldn't stay away from me when the school offered to drop the matter in the beginning. They didn't want the university's reputation to suffer. I realized after it came out that I didn't see she'd been unstable. It was as if someone pulled a blinder off my eyes. It felt like she'd brainwashed me and getting away cleared everything up." He bowed his head refusing to meet her eyes.

"I just have one question." Emily said as she put a hand under his face to lift it up to look at her. "What's the significance of the flowers? Why do they scare you so much?"

He smiled shakily and took another deep breath. "She loved black roses…. I bought some for her once. After the university said she had to stop seeing me, she used to send them to me all the time. Just two of them with a red ribbon tied around them. She said we'd always be together no matter how much time or distance passed. She swore she'd come find me if she ever got out of the institution. I didn't think she would, but I guess she fooled someone."

"So you think she's the one that's been in your place."

"Yeah…"

"How would she get in?"

"I don't know Emily." His voice began to rise. "I don't want to be here. Can we just leave?"

"We need to call Morgan."

"Can we do it from your car? I can't stay here anymore."

"So we went out to the car and this woman surprised us. She had a gun. I didn't have a chance to use my weapon and neither did Reid. Then there was a voice."

Emily squeezed her eyes tight. "It sounded Russian, but I don't know for sure. I didn't see the person's face before the shot."

"It's okay Emily." He stroked her hand with his thumb. "Was the voice male or female?'

"It was a man."

Tears began to leak out of her eyes. "I'm so scared and tired."

The monitor began beeping irritably. "I better go before they kick me out." He told her. "Be prepared for Strauss's goons to ask you the same questions."

"Don't worry Morgan… I won't be as helpful to them as I was to you."

He winked at her. "I'm glad you're not dead Prentiss."

"Me too," She tried to laugh but began to cough instead. "My throat's dry." She said.

"Alright… That's enough for one day." The same nurse bustled back into the room.

"Yes ma'am… I'm just leaving.

---

Reid opened the door of the SUV and gasped. The icy wind had picked up. It buffeted his legs as he shut the door and limped as quickly as he could to the door. If he could get back in the house and find the keys. She probably had them with her for safety.

He reached the stairs and slipped on the second one as he climbed them. The hand gripping his cane lost its purchase on the walking aid and he fell banging his good knee on the edge of the stair riser.

He screamed in pain and fell into the ice and snow at the bottom of the stairs. He rolled over grabbing at his knee as involuntary tears of pain squirted out of the corners of his eyes. The cold took a distant place to the pain in his knee. He tried to get to his feet, but they wouldn't cooperate.

"Get up!" An angry voice said from above him.

Clarissa stood over him with a large gun pointed at his face. The bore of the gun held his attention the same way the needle used to hold his attention like nothing else existed in the world.

"I said get up!"

He rolled to his 'bad knee' and pushed up with both hands. His cane lay on the stairs where he'd dropped it with a clatter as he fell. The wind and blowing snow made him squint as he leaned over to grab the cane. Now he had to put all his weight on his 'bad leg.' and it hurt like nothing he'd felt. His hands were so cold they wouldn't work until he felt the gun in his back.

"Go inside… Now!" She screamed over the wind.

His body tried to make both his legs limp at the same time. Of course, that didn't work and he almost fell a second time into the center island of the kitchen as they moved awkwardly through the kitchen. He pushed upright at the jamming of the gun into his back, again.

"I should kill you now." She said. "You just don't get it. You leave here when I say you leave." She punctuated each syllable with the gun.

"Clarissa -"

"Don't speak, just move." She jabbed him again with the gun.

Why had he panicked and not found something to restrain her with before pelting out into the snow? How could he be so stupid? Some fully trained FBI agent he was."

She herded him into the bedroom and shut the door. "Sit down Spencer."

"Clarissa, please just talk to -"

"No more talk Dr. Reid."

He saw that her forehead bled profusely. There was blood on her face and down the front of the white sweater she wore. He backed up and sat on the bed with a loud groan.

"Did you hurt your knee?" She taunted him. "That'll teach you to stay in the house. I'm the only one with the keys. I sent Ivan away so we can be alone, but don't think you can leave. I told you we're twenty miles away from the main road. You couldn't walk it in this weather without the proper clothing. It's ten degrees out there right now and the wind chill is below zero. You'd lose the feeling in your hands in less than two minutes without gloves. I'm sure you felt it out there. Your face is very red and so are your hands. A few more minutes and you'd be in danger of frostbite.

She sat down on the wooden chair next to the table by the door. Her hand's shook, he could see and her green eyes blazed at him.

"You're here till I decide to let you go." She informed him. "Get used to it."

"My team will find me." He said.

"Your team will think you were the one that killed Agent Prentiss."

He struggled to his feet and took two steps in her direction. She brought up her gun. "Don't push me Lover. I told you - You're mine till I decide otherwise."

She stood up and moved to the door keeping her gun on him. "Make your life easier Spencer! Remember what things were like before they said we couldn't be together. We were so happy. We will be happy again!"