TITLE: The Best of Us Falls

CHAPTER/TITLE: Chapter Fourteen/ Last Goodbye

RATING: T (language and mature content)

A/N: A short little almost "side" chapter. I had this, but it didn't really fit where I wanted the other chapters to end/begin/etc.

Since I can't post links in here, you all should go over RIGHT NOW to YOUTUBE and go to my CHANNEL. It's Tara Laurel. I posted 2 promo videos for this story. I had a lot more in mind, with different scenes, music, dialogue, etc, but it didn't work out when my computer fried. I just uploaded what I had. Enjoy! And comment if you'd be so cool & kind.

So, go, youtube, now. Then come back and read more!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds.

Chapter Fourteen: Last Goodbye

It was a bad idea.

Spencer knew this was a horrible idea, but there he was, inside Jennifer's house once more. As much as he loved his friend and felt terrible she had been ill for several days now, he had been glad he had not had to face her earlier with everyone else. He might not have made it out the door.

He was leaving the FBI, and leaving this city. He wanted to leave his own self behind too. The walls were thin, though, when it came to JJ and he couldn't bear to disappear without saying goodbye. He had done so five minutes ago and tried to make a quick exit, but Jennifer was having none of it.

"Spence, just wait –" JJ pulled off her blanket and trudged off the couch behind Reid.

"JJ, you shouldn't be up. You're sick –"

"And you shouldn't be quitting."

"Hey," Will spoke as he descended the stairs, "what's going on?"

"I'm just picking up some of my stuff I left here," Reid announced, avoiding the topic.

"He's saying goodbye," Jennifer's voice was hard, but cracked towards the end. "He's leaving the BAU."

"What?" Will came further into the room and stood by Jennifer.

"Not leaving," Spencer corrected pointedly , "I'm being fired."

"That's not true," JJ countered. "You're letting them fire you because you won't go to an interview."

"It's not an interview, JJ," Reid spat, "it's a psychological evaluation."

"So what? They make us do stuff like that all the time. After Emily, after she came back, after Hotch lost Hailey. I had to take one after I had Henry, before I could come back early from leave. Spence, I know you hate them, but your mother –"

"This isn't about my mother!"

The room collapsed into crushing silence as Reid's sudden outcry resonated against the walls in the house and in his head.

"Then what is it about?" Will finally broke the stillness.

"I – uh – I – I've been having – headaches," Spencer stopped and glanced up at Jennifer, her hard gaze instantly falling and softening with understanding.

"Spence," JJ sighed, her voice now lacking its previous edge and laced only with empathy, "just because your mom had it, doesn't mean you will."

"But it could. Statistically speaking –"

"Don't, Reid. You're not a statistic. You're Spencer Reid. You're one of the best FBI profilers there is, you're hands down the smartest person I know, you're one of my best friends, and you're my son's godfather."

"None of that matters if my brain decides to go crazy."

"I think if you were going crazy, you wouldn't recognize you were going crazy. People with schizophrenia –"

"Maybe it's schizophrenia, maybe it's something else. Maybe – with everything I went through as a kid – and then everything I've seen and do see and know – my brain just finally is deciding enough is enough."

"That isn't true and you know it too. You're avoiding whatever this really is."

"Everything you went through when you were a kid, everything with your parents and what you've gone through because of your job – it's made you stronger," Will added.

"Not strong enough," Spencer whispered, mostly to himself. "I – I have to go."

"At least say goodbye to Henry," Jennifer pleaded.

"I'm sorry – I can't."

His words were rushed, stumbling out of his mouth and twisting together on their way out. Before anything else could be said, Spencer turned on his heel and hurried out the door.