A/N: Eek! Look at the new cover I made! I'm really proud of myself. It took me like 2 hours to make (huh, not as long as I thought, but it felt like forever). It's not the best, but I'm still proud of it. Ignore the random umbrella handle Emi's holding (the render came like that, and I couldn't find the original picture). Anywho, here's part two (hehe, that rhymed)!
Previously, on Against the World...
"Elle!" the Asian cried out, hurrying over to her friend, "Elle, stay with me."
"No, Emi. Behind you," Elle managed to say.
"What?"
But before Emi could turn around to see what Elle was talking about, something struck her head. The last thing she heard before she fell unconscious was a raspy voice saying, "I suppose your team will need something else to motivate you. Time for you to meet Rebecca, Emi Hinata."
When Emi came back to consciousness, the first thing she realized was that she was in a messy, make-shift bedroom.
"What..." Emi looked around the room in a daze. It took her a few seconds to remember what had happened. "Elle!" Emi sat up and tried to get out of the bed she was in, but something held her back. Hearing the noise of metal clanging against something, Emi looked down to see that she was chained up.
"It's no use."
Emi whipped around, pressed her back against the door. In the corner, was a girl-a girl that Emi had seen before.
"Rebecca Bryant?"
The girl's eyes widened. "You-you know me?" she asked.
Emi nodded, "Yes. My team and I-I'm an agent of the FBI-we're looking for you. The man that took you sent us a video, saying that we're on a quest or something. Um, by any chance, did you see a brunette woman with shoulder-length hair? She was shot by the man..."
Rebecca shook her head, "You're the only one he brought here."
"Oh..."
Meanwhile, the rest of team were in Quantico, unaware of what had happened to Emi and Elle.
"Reid, how many books do you think are published in a year?" Hotch asked as the genius stared intently at the coded paper.
"In the whole world? Thousands."
"Great, and all we gotta do is find one," Morgan scoffed, "You know, I can see this unsub gettin' our phone numbers and addresses from the Bureau personnel files, but come on, man. It really says in there that Gideon digs Nellie Fox?"
"Or that JJ collects butterflies?" Hotch added.
"Or that Emi's mother used to play her 'The Trout Quintet'," Spencer reminded them.
"I didn't even know these things about us," Morgan said, throwing the Nellie Fox card he had been holding onto the table.
"'Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight,'" Spencer muttered.
"Reid, not again with the poem from the music box, please," Morgan begged.
"There's something familiar about it," Spencer said, "I think I've heard it somewhere before."
"Thought you had a photographic memory," Morgan said.
"Eidetic memory," Spencer corrected, "And that's primarily related to things I read. Like I said, this is something I think I've heard."
Hotch gave him a questioning look, "Which leaves us..."
"Nowhere, that's where it leaves us," Morgan answered.
"Not necessarily," Gideon said, letting the three men know that he had entered the room, "How would we proceed if we didn't have all these clues? What's the first thing we'd look at?"
"Victimology," Hotch answered.
"Why this particular victim in this particular place at this particular time?" Morgan questioned.
"We have a victim, don't we?" Gideon pointed out.
"Rebecca Bryant," Spencer agreed.
"Missin' out of South Boston, Virginia," Gideon informed them, "You can get there in a few hours if you hurry. Take JJ. Find out everything there is to know about this girl."
"You got it," Morgan said.
"Been lettin' him lead us around like he's somethin' more than he is," Gideon continued.
"He's just another unsub," Hotch realized, "Let's start puttin' together a profile."
"What do you want me to do?" Spencer asked.
"Just keep workin' on this," Gideon told him, "If anybody can put it together, you can."
"Are you okay?" Emi asked Rebecca-before quickly adding, "Physically."
Rebecca had started coughing constantly, and as the time passed, her coughs started to get more violent.
The coughing girl didn't respond, she simply just crawled off her bed and stumbled towards the door.
"Please help me," she said weakly, facing a security camera that was in the room.
"Anderson?" Hotch called, walking towards the man, "Agent Greenaway left her bag here, can you go to her house and drop it off?"
"Certainly, sir."
"'Possible Book Titles,'" Spencer muttered, staring at the words he wrote on the white board, "Thousands of books published every year. This is impossible, I need Emi..." he froze, suddenly thinking of something, "Year...every year..." he searched through the items on the conference table before picking up the Nellie Fox baseball card. "1963." Taking one last look at the card in his hand, Spencer dashed over to Gideon's office.
"The book has to be the right volume and the right publication date or the code won't work, right?" Spencer said to Gideon.
"Okay."
"Now when you talk about Nellie Fox, it's in regards to the 1959 White Sox. That's the year that's important to you, but for some reason, this is a 1963 card," Spencer pointed out.
"Well, maybe he couldn't have a '59," Gideon suggested.
"You think a pale clouded yellow butterfly was easy to find," Spencer countered, "Or a music box that specifically plays 'The Trout Quintet'?"
"So a book published in 1963," Gideon summarized.
"It has to be," Spencer said before doubting himself, "Maybe..."
"The guy who delivered the puzzle to my house just turned himself in," Hotch told Gideon and Spencer, poking his head into the office.
Gideon got out of his chair of follow Hotch, whereas Spencer decided to make a trip to Garcia's lair.
"This guy is infuriatingly good," Garcia said to Spencer through gritted teeth, "He routed his IP through major corporations, crisscrossed it through countries, bounced it off satellites-"
"I thought you already tracked the hacker," Spencer interrupted.
"No, I only found what he wanted me to find," Garcia grumbled, "Apartment where Giles was dead. Reid a hacker capable of getting into my systems is going to have amazingly sophisticated equipment. Did Giles's apartment have that?"
"He didn't have a couch," Spencer replied.
"Exactly. Giles was a smokescreen I should have seen through," Garcia said, "But now I have this glorious program I wrote, tracking the hacker through his other identity-Sir Kneighf."
Spencer leaned over Garcia's shoulders to stare at the name. "K-N-E-I-G-H-F," he spelled out, "That's an odd spelling."
Not liking how he was practically breathing on her, Garcia turned to face Spencer. "Do you need something?"
Realizing how close they were, Spencer backed away. "Yeah, is-is there a database, which lists all the books published in a given year?"
"Individual publishers have lists," Garcia told him, "But I don't think there's anything like a master one, plus it would depend upon the year, because the further back you go, the less likely there'll be any database at all."
"1963."
"Yeah, okay, that would be an example of extremely less likely," Garcia said.
"Could you do me a favor-uh-type something into a search engine for me?" Spencer requested, "'Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight.'"
"Okay, that's from a poem," Garcia stated, reading the information that popped up, "'The Parliament of-'"
"'Fowls!'" Spencer finished, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! Chaucer, my-my mom use to read me that. It's widely considered as the first Valentine's poem."
"Your mom read you Valentine's poems?" Garcia repeated in amused disbelief, "Hello therapy."
"Chaucer..." Spencer repeated to himself, "Chaucer. 'Parliament of Fowls.' Fowls, 'Parliament of Fowls,' Chaucer. It has to be at least 283 pages long, but the poem has to be longer. Something published in 1963. A butterfly indigenous to Great Britain. Why? Something born, something from Great Britain. Medieval. Medieval, Chaucer. Chaucer was Middle English. Middle English spelling of the word 'Fowls...' F-O-W-L-E-S...
"There was a contemporary British author-Fowles," Spencer said, loudly for Garcia to hear, "John Fowles. Will you type it into a search engine?"
"Uh...he wrote 'The Magus,' he wrote 'The French Lieutenant's Woman,'" Garcia listed.
"Anything in 1963 published in Great Britain?" Spencer asked.
"'The Collector.'"
"Collector," Spencer repeated, "Baseball cards, skeleton keys, music boxes. These are things that are collected. 'The Collector' is actually one of Emi's favorite books!"
"So, I suppose it's safe for me to assume that you do need this book?" Surprised to hear a new voice, Garcia and Spencer turned around to see Haru standing in the doorway.
"Haru? What are you doing here?" Spencer asked in confusion.
"Um, I asked someone where you were, and they lead me to here. Oh, and Emi had called me a few hours earlier saying that she accidentally left this book at our parents' house. Honestly, I had to go on a 4 hour flight just to bring this to her."
"Reid," Garcia whispered, staring at the book in Haru's hand. Spencer nodded to show her that he saw it, too.
On the cover of Emi's copy of 'The Collector' was a skeleton key, a pale clouded yellow butterfly, and a lock of blonde hair.
"We know what the book is," Spencer told Gideon and Hotch as they just exited the interrogation room. "'The Collector' by John Fowles."
"You sure?"
"Not absolutely," Spencer said, "Not until we see if the code works, but Haru, Emi's brother, is here with her copy. It's the exact edition we needed, too."
"Her brother?" Gideon repeated as both he and Hotch realized that there was a new person with them.
Haru gave them an awkward, two-finger salute, "Yo. Oh, and I just remembered," he turned to face Spencer, a concerned look now on his face, "Is my sister okay?"
Spencer exchanged furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"I was talking on the phone with her about an 45 minutes or so," Haru explained, "And I think I heard a gunshot from her side. She also ended our call abruptly, so I was just wondering if anything happened to her."
Before Spencer could reply, another woman walked over towards the group.
"Agent Gideon, there's a call for you on line 2, says it's extremely urgent," the woman said.
"Is there a name?" Gideon asked.
"Sort of. He calls himself the 'Fisher King,'" the woman told him, showing them a notepad with the name written on it.
Spencer took the notepad and stared at it, his mind rearranging the letters. "This could be the unsub, guys," Spencer said.
"Why?" Hotch asked.
"In mythology, the Fisher King is the Grail King," Spencer explained, "'Sir Kneighf,' it's an anagram...for 'Fisher King.'"
"Fisher King's at the end of all grail quests," Gideon stated, staring at Garcia, who looked down, guiltily.
"Line 2 trapped and traced," Hotch ordered as they all entered the bullpen.
"Gideon," Gideon said, answering the call.
"What I had to do was not my fault," the man said.
"Excuse me?"
"It was distasteful and barbaric."
"Who is this?"
"No one else had to be hurt."
"Call yourself 'the Fisher King'?" Gideon taunted.
"I told you there were rules," the man continued, ignoring Gideon's taunt.
"I'm actually more interested in exactly how you got all those burns," Gideon said.
The other side was silent for a moment, but then the man continued talking, "Remember this next time you decide to step outside my instructions. Agent Greenaway did not have to die like that. And to make sure you'll never do it again, I have taken Agent Hinata has leverage."
The dial tone signaled the end of the call, but no one was paying attention to that. They were trying to wrap their heads around what the Fisher King had just said.
"Emi's...been taken?" Spencer managed to whisper.
"Spencer, you have got to calm down," Haru said after watching Spencer pace around in a circle, like, 50 times.
"I can't calm down. Emi's been taken!" Spencer snapped, "How can you be so calm? Your sister's been taken!"
"I know," Haru growled, inhaling sharply, "I know, Spencer, I know. But how would Emi want us to act, huh? 'Cause she'd certainly not want you to panic like this. Remember what she would tell you? 'Panicking only causes stress, and stressing-'"
"'-only causes panic,'" Spencer finished, slowly taking a deep breath, "Thanks, Haru. I needed that."
Haru gave Spencer a pat on the back before sitting back on the table, Emi's book on his lap. He turned to look at the blonde techie who was standing near a now empty whiteboard. "You two ready?"
"Yep."
Spencer nodded. "Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna read you a set of three numbers. The first is gonna be a page number, the second a line number on that page, and the third, a word number in that line."
Haru quietly groaned, "Oh, this is gonna be hell."
The corner's of Spencer's mouth twitched up a bit as he turned towards the enlarged picture of the coded message. "All right, the first is page 222."
Haru flipped to the right page then repeated the page number to let Spencer know he was there. "Page 222."
"Line 23."
"Line 23."
"What is the 16th word on that line?" Spencer asked.
Haru narrowed his eyes and squinted at the book to focus. "Uh...'The.'"
Hearing that, Garcia wrote the word on the board.
"Page 91...Line 11...Word 13."
"Hold on..." Haru murmured, quickly flipping to the page. A few seconds later, he looked up. "'Path.'"
"'The path,'" Spencer said, stringing the two words together, "That makes sense! That absolutely makes sense!"
"It actually doesn't, but because you're the genius, I'm just gonna agree with you," Haru said, nodding along, "Shall we continue?"
"Okay, so turn to page 31..."
"'The path to the end began at his start. To find her first calm her long broken heart. She sits in a window with secrets from her knight. Is it adventure that keeps him out of her sight?'" Garcia said, reading the finished decoded message.
"Oh, great. A riddle," Haru groaned, "Of course this guy takes the one who loves solving riddles."
"Emi loves riddles?" Garcia asked, hoping to lighten the mood.
"Yeah," Haru confirmed, a look of nostalgia on his face, "When we were younger, she and Spencer would always have scavenger hunts with riddles. My brother and I...we tried to play once, but our minds never worked fast enough."
As Haru was telling Garcia this, Spencer was staring at the riddle, mumbling to himself.
"Never would it be night, but always clear day," he said, picking up the picture of the riddle he had just said, "That'd be-that'd be bright lights. It's never night in Las Vegas."
"Excuse me?" Garcia said, confused at Spencer's random statement. Spencer ignored her though as he quickly grabbed the phone, dialing a number.
"I need to be connected to the field office closest to Las Vegas, Nevada, immediately," he said into the phone, "Hi. This is Dr. Spencer Reid with the Behavior Analysis Unit at Quantico. Look, I need my mother picked up and brought to Virginia in protective custody as soon as possible...We're searching for an unsub who shot one of our agents and kidnapped a different one today, and I think he might know my mother, and I believe she may be in danger. Yes. She's at the Bennington Sanitarium in Las Vegas. Her name's Diana Reid. She's a patient there."
"She's okay-your mom," Garcia said to Spencer, walking over to where he sat at Emi's desk. Haru sat on the edge of the desk, playing with a little stuff animal that Emi had on her desk. "Agents picked her up. She's flying here right now," Garcia told them.
"Are you sure that's a good idea, Spencer?" Haru asked, looking up from the stuff animal, "Your mom isn't exactly a big fan of flying..."
"I forgot she used to always read me this poem," Spencer said, referring to the poem in his hand. Haru rolled his eyes, knowing that Spencer was purposely avoiding the subject. "It's funny, huh?"
"Funny?" Garcia repeated, confused.
"I should have realized sooner," Spencer clarified, "I mean, nobody knows things like the fact that JJ collects butterflies except for me. People tell me their secrets all the time. Think it's 'cause they know I don't have anyone to betray them to...except my mother and Emi. I...I tell them pretty much everything."
"I don't think anyone would mind," Garcia reassured him.
"Do you know that I write her a letter every day?" Spencer stated, referring to his mother.
"That's nice," Garcia smiled.
"It depends on why I write her," Spencer countered.
The smile fell off Garcia's face. "What do you mean?"
"I write her letters so I won't feel so guilty about not visiting her," Spencer admitted.
"Spencer..." Haru said softly, a sad look on his face.
Spencer stuck his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small pouch. He began to fiddle with the strings tying the pouch closed. "Did you know that schizophrenia is genetically passed?" Spencer questioned, looking down at his hands.
"Spencer, you don't have schizophrenia," Haru said sternly.
Spencer looked up and stared at Haru, his eyes showing defeat. "You don't know that for sure."
The sound of the door opening caught Emi's attention.
"Please," Emi begged the man. She was currently rubbing Rebecca's back in hopes of soothing her body into stopping the coughs, "Rebecca's sick."
"I brought you two dinner," the man said, placing the tray in his hand onto the bed, "It's chicken."
"She doesn't need chicken, she needs a doctor," Emi argued.
"She likes chicken," the man pressed, taking the plates off the tray.
"No, no," Rebecca protested, clutching the man's arm, "Just take the chains off us."
"No," the man refused, "You'll try to escape."
"No, we won't," Rebecca disagreed, "I promise."
The man didn't listen and turned to walk away. "I'll be back for your tray in half an hour."
Angry, Rebecca grabbed the tray and hit the man with it. "Why don't you just kill me, you son of a bitch?!" she screamed.
The man just turned back around and smiled at her sadly. "Because I love you too much, Rebecca."
"Oh, Rebecca," Emi said, pulling the girl down and into her arms. As Rebecca sobbed against Emi's shirt, the Asian woman glared at the man who had kidnapped her. "I think it's best if you go."
The man stepped forward to comfort the sobbing girl, but decided against it and left the room.
"So, would you like one bag or two bags of sugar cubes to go with that coffee?" Haru joked as he watched Spencer pour coffee into his mug.
"That's why you're so skinny, you know." Surprised, the two boys turned to see Diana Reid nervously standing a few feet away from them. "Too much coffee," Spencer's mother clarified.
"Thanks a lot, guys. We've got her," Spencer said, thanking the two agents standing behind his mom.
"You know I'm terrified of flying," Mrs. Reid grumbled.
"I know, Mom. I'm sorry," Spencer apologized.
"Well, then why did you have those fascists arrest me?" she countered.
Haru quietly snorted. "Mrs. Reid, they're not fascists," he told Spencer's mom.
"And you were not arrested," Spencer added, "I'm trying to protect you."
"By forcing me to do the one thing that frightens me more than anything else?" his mom retorted.
"Told you you shouldn't have done it," Haru muttered into Spencer's ear.
Spencer waved Haru's comment aside and sighed. "I need to show you something," he told his mom, "Follow me."
Spencer took his mother to the conference room. At some point, Haru slipped away and went to visit Garcia thinking that he probably shouldn't ruin Spencer's alone time with his mother.
"This is where you work?" Mrs. Reid asked looking around the conference room in distaste.
"This is where we meet," Spencer corrected, "Uh, my desk, you can see it, it's right out there in the bullpen area."
His mother made a face at the mention of the bullpen area and moved to inspect the conference table. "The table's round."
"Yeah, just like I wrote you in my letters," Spencer pointed out.
"Yes, just like you wrote in your letters," Mrs. Reid agreed. "Dr. Jessen gave me the book you brought. Majorie Kemp."
Spencer nodded, "She's your favorite."
"That particular book is one of her minor works," she said. Suddenly, she walked over to one of the boards and ripped a small piece of paper off.
"Mom, no! Don't to-don't!" Spencer exclaimed, rushing over to his mother and taking the paper from her. "You can't grab stuff off the board," he chided, placing the paper into an evidence bag, "This key is evidence." Seeing how uncomfortable his mother looked, Spencer took a deep breath to calm down. "Mom, the unsub that we're looking for...the-the bad guy knows things about my colleagues' personal lives, things that only you would know. Do you write about them in your journals?"
"My journals are none of the government's business!" Mrs. Reid exclaimed, shouting the last phrase loudly.
"I'm not the government, Mom," Spencer denied.
"Well, this certainly looks like a government office," Mrs. Reid retorted.
"Mother, do you write about my colleagues' personal lives?" Spencer pressed.
Again, Mrs. Reid didn't answer, and instead, placed her head in her hands. "Why did you bring me here, Spencer? And where is Emi?"
Spencer fell silent for a few seconds, unsure about whether he should tell her what happened to Emi or not. Making his decision, Spencer opened his mouth to continue his attempts of getting his mother to answer his questions. "I need to ask you some things about a man I think you might know. A bad man. He's killed some people, and he's holding two girls hostages-one of them's Emi."
"Emi's been taken?" Mrs. Reid gasped.
Feeling the sudden rush of panic caused by that statement, Spencer looked away and took some deep breaths to calm himself down. "Will you just watch the tape and see if he sounds familiar?"
Seeing his mother give him quick, small nods, Spencer rushed over to the conference table to pull out a chair for his mother to sit in. After seating her, Spencer grabbed the remote from the table and pressed play.
When the unsub in the video started talking, Spencer noticed a look of shock and realization appear on his mother's face. After the man said a few more lines, Spencer paused the video. "You do know him?"
"I'm sure it's...Randall Garner," Mrs. Reid said.
"Randall Garner?"
"He was with me at the hospital. He's a very emotionally disturbed man," Mrs. Reid explained.
"Reid, I got to the end of the IP string," Garcia said, rushing into the room with Haru quickly on her tail. "Sir Kneighf, the Fisher King, his name is Randall Garner. He's Rebecca Bryant's biological father.
"And I'm assuming by the look on your face that your mom recognized him, too?" Haru guessed, causing Spencer to reluctantly nod.
"I can't believe she's real," Mrs. Reid mumbled as she paced back and forth.
Garcia and Spencer looked up from their work, startled by that statement.
"What do you mean?" Garcia asked.
"Whenever he talked about Rebecca, he never said she was his daughter," Mrs. Reid told them, "He said all his children died in the fire. He spoke of a Rebecca, more in the abstract. I really thought she was a metaphor, not an actual human being. An ideal."
"A grail," Spencer inputted, "He thinks he's the Fisher King."
"Who does?" Morgan asked as he and JJ walked into the room. He then noticed Haru in the room. "Who's he?"
"Randall Garner, our unsub."
"He believes you're all modern-day knights of the round table," Mrs. Reid realized.
"If people's lives weren't on the line, I would think that it was actually pretty cool," Haru commented.
Before Morgan could even ask who the two new people were, Spencer quickly introduced them. "Uh, Derek Morgan, this is my mother, Diana Reid-"
"It's your mother?" Morgan repeated, a little surprised, "Ma'am, it's a...it's a pleasure to meet you."
"And over there is-"
"Haru Hinata," Haru said, interrupting Spencer's introduction. He walked over to JJ and picked her hand, giving her forehand a soft kiss. "I'm Emi's older brother."
JJ let out a soft chuckle of amusement, "I'm-"
"Jennifer Jareau," Haru finished, "Emi's told me a lot about you."
"Haru, stop it," Spencer said, "Emi wouldn't want you flirting with her friends."
"Gosh darn," Haru sighed, backing away from JJ.
"So where are we on finding this son of a bitch?" Everyone turned to see Hotch storm into the room.
"I rechecked all the clues. There's nothing that points to an address," Spencer told him as everyone sat down.
"The adoption records for Rebecca listed an address of the fire, so I made a call to Nevada, and it's vacant. No one ever rebuilt," JJ informed them.
"Nevada? So we don't even know what state he's in?" Hotch questioned.
"I'll search the tax records," Garcia said, "See if he owns any property."
"Excuse me," Mrs. Reid interrupted.
"Mom, we're-"
"Just before the agents got me from the hospital, a man delivered this to me." Mrs. Reid reached into her bag and pulled out a picture. "It's a photo of a house with an address on the back."
"Shiloh, Virginia?" Morgan read, "That's only 10 miles from here."
Spencer, Hotch, Morgan, and the SWAT team searched through the house before stopping at a table that held both Elle's and Emi's credentials. Now more certain than ever, the team split up and continued to search through the house until Spencer heard a noise from upstairs. At Spencer's call, the team moved up the stairs and into one of the side halls before leaning against the walls of the hallway.
Seeing a door slightly ajar and some light coming from it, Spencer moved to peer into the room before nodding at Morgan. "He's in there."
"Alright. Cover me, I'm going in," Morgan ordered.
"What?" Spencer whispered, "Wait, wait, wait, wait."
"What? What?"
"Mr. Garner?" Spencer called loudly, "My name's Spencer Reid. You were in the hospital with my mother. I think...I think she might have confused you. All we want to do is help Rebecca. That's exactly what you want, right? That's why you sent us the puzzles? That's why you said you hoped you'd be seeing us soon?"
"Ask the question."
"There is no magical question, Mr. Garner," Spencer said before quietly explaining to Morgan and Hotch. "He believes if I ask him the right question, it'll heal all of his wounds."
"Do you know the question?" Hotch asked.
"I know what he wants," Spencer said, "I'm gonna move to where he can see me."
"Reid!"
"Reid, no!"
"Fall back," Spencer ordered, ignoring their protests. He handed a nearby SWAT member his gun before slowly moving towards Garner's office.
"Stay calm, Mr. Garner," Spencer told him.
"Ask the question, Sir Percival."
"I told you, I'm not Percival," Spencer said, "My name is Dr. Spencer Reid from the FBI. You were in the hospital with my mother, Diana?"
"If you want your queen and the grail you must ask the question!"
"She's not a grail!" Spencer corrected, "She's your daughter. Her name's Rebecca."
"My daughters died in a fire and my son and my wife," Garner said.
Spencer shook his head. "Rebecca lived."
"No. Your mother, she explained it all to me," Garner countered.
"My mother's a paranoid schizophrenic who'd forget to eat if she wasn't properly medicated and supervised," Spencer shouted.
"She made me realize none of it was real," Garner continued, "I didn't lost Rebecca. She-She never existed in the first place."
"She does exist, Mr. Garner," Spencer insisted. At this point, he had reached the door and was slowly pushing it further open. "And we're here to help her." When the door was fully open, it revealed Randall Garner sitting in his chair. He had bombs strapped onto him, and his thumb was hovering over the trigger.
"Hotch, Morgan?" Spencer called out to his fellow teammates, "I think maybe it'd be better if you guys waited downstairs. Mr. Garner and I are just gonna talk alone up here."
"Go ahead and talk, Reid, but we're not goin' anywhere," Morgan told him.
"Ask the question, and I'll be healed," Garner grunted, "And you may take the grail and your precious queen. Just ask the question, Sir Knight."
Spencer shook his head, "I can't."
"Heal me!"
"Mr. Garner, a Fisher King wound cannot be healed by somebody else," Spencer told the man, "It's not a wound to the body. It's a wound to the memory. Wound to the mind. It's...It's a wound that only you can find, and a wound that only you can heal."
"Just ask the question."
"There's only one question that matters, Mr. Garner," Spencer said, "There's only one really important question...Can you forgive yourself?"
Mr. Garner took a shaky breath. "I couldn't get to them," he said.
Spencer nodded. "If you tell me where she are, you can save Rebecca now. Tell me where Emi and Rebecca are."
"You already know," Mr. Garner sighed, "I sent your mother the map."
Spencer tilted his head. "What map?"
"Can I forgive myself?" Mr. Garner asked, repeated the question that Spencer had asked him. Predicting where this was going to go, Spencer started to slowly back out of the room. "No, I can't."
Hearing those words, Spencer turned and broke into an all-out sprint. "Run!" After he cried that, there was an explosion and Spencer was thrown down the hallway.
"Don't move Reid, don't move," Morgan ordered, quickly patting Spencer's flamed pants with a tapestry.
"Get him out," Hotch said, "Get-let go-let's go." Both he and Morgan pulled Spencer up and dragged him down the hall, trying to escape the fire.
"What the hell was that?" Hotch demanded.
"He had a bomb," Spencer coughed.
"You didn't think we needed to know that?" Morgan questioned.
"I told you to go downstairs," Spencer argued.
"Well, you didn't say bomb. You let that part out," Morgan retorted.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop," Spencer exclaimed.
"What do you mean stop?!" Morgan shouted, "The house is on fire, Reid. Let's go!"
"Just let me think, let me think!" Spencer cried, "He's the Fisher King, this is his castle, Emi and Rebecca's got to be here."
"Reid, there may not be time for a search," Hotch said, "Let's go."
"Hotch, my girlfriend is in this house somewhere," Spencer snapped before muttering to himself, "Location's on the map that he gave to my mom.
"Reid, all she told us about was that photo," Morgan shouted, getting impatient, "Let's go!"
Suddenly, Spencer thought of something, his eyes widening in realization. "Down-They're in the basement downstairs!"
"How do you know that?!" Morgan questioned, following the genius downstairs.
"We're in here!" Emi shouted as Rebecca tried to pull on their chains. She heard faint voices calling their names. "Down here!"
"Is the house on fire?!" Rebecca shouted.
"They're in here." Emi let out a sigh of relief when she recognized Spencer's voice. "Emi!"
"Spencer!" Emi exclaimed, "We're chained."
"Get us out of here," Rebecca cried as Hotch rushed over to help free them.
"Here I got the bed," Morgan said, pulling the bed aside.
"Hurry!"
"He called me Sir Percival," Spencer stated.
"The key, Spencer, the key. 'The youngest holds the key!'" Emi reminded him, "Do you have the key!"
Spencer's hands darted into his pockets before pulling out a key. He quickly inserted it into the key hole, unlocking Emi's chain, before moving to unlock Rebecca's. Spencer pulled Emi into his arms before carrying her out of the building. At some point, the smoke from the fire finally got to Emi and she passed out.
When Emi awoke again, she found herself in a hospital room, in a hospital bed.
"The doctor said that you're lucky." Emi turned to see Spencer standing in the doorway. "The smoke didn't do too much damage-in fact, very little damage-and you probably only have a minor concussion.
"Woohoo," Emi cheered to lighten the mood. Spencer chuckled and moved to sit in the chair next to Emi's bed. "How's Elle and Rebecca?"
"Rebecca's fine," Spencer told her, "And the doctors told her that Elle will recover."
"Oh, thank God," Emi sighed. She then bit her lips and looked up at him. "So...you saved me."
Spencer nodded. "I saved you."
"And what should I reward my knight with?" Emi asked playfully.
The boy genius licked his lips before sheepishly smiling at her, "Well, I might know something..."
Emi giggled and motioned for Spencer to near her. When he was close enough, Emi pulled Spencer into a passionate kiss.
When they pulled apart, Spencer smiled at her before looking down, fidgeting nervously. "Um...Emi?"
"Hm?"
"So...we-we've been dating for a while now," Spencer started, "5 years, 4 months, and 26 days to be exact. And, um...I was going to do this earlier-much earlier actually...around our 5th year anniversary, but then we got busy with cases and there was never really time...So, uh, I was actually going to ask you this is back when we were in Vegas, but then the Fisher King stuff came up and our vacation got cut short..."
"Spencer, you're rambling," Emi said with a giggle.
"Right, sorry," Spencer said, "I guess what I'm trying to ask is...um..." Spencer's hand slipped into his pocket and he pulled out a pouch. Reaching inside, he pulled out a silver ring with a small, simple diamond on it. "Do you wanna get married? Oh, wait, no. I said that wrong...I mean-"
"Yes," Emi interrupted, her eyes brimming with tears, "Yes, I will marry you!" She grabbed Spencer's tie and pulled him in for a kiss. When they pulled apart, Spencer slipped the ring onto Emi's finger before staring at her with loving eyes.
"I love you, Emi."
"And I love you, Spencer Reid."
A/N: Woohoo! They're engaged now! And they will be for a long time (because I have no idea how to write a wedding scene). I think maybe I'll have them be engaged for maybe seasons 2 and 3, then get married season 4? I don't really know, yet. But yay! It might take me a while to update because now I need to focus on school as well as write a chapter for my other fanfiction. Anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter!
