Chapter 21

Jessie and Richard read all morning and talked about other books that they've read in the last few years. Jessie felt herself slip slowly back into her comfort zone with Richard, but she desperately held onto her need to escape. She felt conflicted and got a headache from over thinking everything.

"You remember Sallah's?" Richard asked at some point in the day.

"The Chinese food place?" Jessie remembered. Along with the memory of Sallah's Chinese food, came memories of late night studies, and declarations of love. Mostly on Richard's side and then Jessie remembered how wrong things had turned out last time. When she told him she could not love him back. And she wondered what would happen if that conversation sprang up again.

"Yeah. I found a place nearby that has the same kind of menu. The food is even better than Sallah's." Richard missed Jessie's internal thought process.

"Better?" she asked.

"Yeah. Let's get some for lunch. I'm starving." Richard stood without waiting for an answer and dialed a number that had clearly been on his speed dial.

Richard hung up after placing the order and stared at his phone.

"I got a call waiting." He told Jessie and added before he walked out, "its business, I'll take it in the office and be right back."

Jessie nodded and returned to her book. In truth she was just pretending to read while she rethought her plans. She heard footsteps and decided to ignore them, knowing that they were John's. She turned the page and suddenly dropped the book when something burned in her arm. She looked up to see John holding a syringe in his hand. She stood and was glad to see the couch was a barrier between them.

"What the hell, John!" she uttered and put her hand over where it burned. There was no mark or even a drop of blood but her arm started pins and needles.

"You'll feel pain soon." John said bluntly. The look on his face showed more than his words ever could.

"What?" she asked anyway.

John tilted his head to the side and stared at her. His sneaky smile sent chills down her spine and suddenly all Jessie wanted was to be near Richard again. When John looked like this he showed no resemblance to Richard. He looked empty inside.

"You're wound on your hip." John answered her considerably stupid question. "You've been sitting all day. Cutting off blood flow. It'll start hurting soon. Well. Would have."

"Thanks." Jessie mumbled and eyed the stairs.

"You know he won't let you live without him." John said.

"What?" this took Jessie by surprise.

"If you know him as well as I do, he won't be able to live without you. Well, if he knew you were alive and with someone else. He'd go on a killing spree. You know what he is, right? What we both are! He won't survive if you leave him again. Last time was bad enough. And if I have to deal with him again, I'll get you, and your boyfriend. I bet Richard would love to have that skinny boy-toy of yours on a gurney."

"You wouldn't." Jessie whispered. John smiled sweetly and the sight of it made Jessie panic.

"Yes I would." He said, and Jessie could tell how much that would please him. Jessie took a deep breath and rearranged her plans and thoughts.

"Why would I want to leave him?" she asked sweetly.

"You don't fool me, Jessie!" John said sternly, mocking her name. He noticed Jessie heading to the stairs and followed her movements.

"I wasn't trying to." She said coldly and sprinted for the stairs. John grabbed her and pulled her down. He pushed her against the wall and pressed against the injury. She held her breath to prevent from screaming. But instead dug her nails into his arm.

Outside the house, Reid parked Morgan's car just down the road and got out. He didn't know what he was going to do but he wanted to see if he could get a glimpse of Jessie. He knew she had said that they won't be able to see her, but there were two plates. And on one of the plates, the knife and fork was crossed over each other, the way Jessie did it.

Reid snuck up to the house and went to the back. He couldn't see anything. All the windows were covered with curtains but he kept looking. He found a small window that seemed to overlook the stairs to the basement. But he saw nothing there.

Then just as he was about to move on, he saw Jessie jump up the stairs and suddenly Moser was there too. Reid started to vibrate when he saw Moser push Jessie against the wall and started seeing red, when he saw the look of absolute pain on Jessie's face. He stood and ran to the front door.

Back inside the house, Jessie couldn't help but utter a grunt from the pain. She felt desperate when she saw the pure joy in John's face when she finally screamed.

"Enough!" Richard said from the top of the stairs. John let go of Jessie and she started breathing again. She doubled over in pain, only to be caught by Richard before she hit the floor.

"Are you okay?" Richard asked. He eyed John with complete anger and helped Jessie to the couch. She leaned back against the cushions and tried to normalize her breathing. The bell rang and John turned to open the door. "I'll deal with you later!" Richard pointed at John and then attended to Jessie, "don't make a sound. That'll be our food."

John walked over to the door and opened it. Instead of the Chinese delivery guy, he saw Reid, with a gun in his pointed straight at John's head. John rolled his eyes and opened the door wider.

"Oh look. The FBI sent the emaciated one to take us down." John said and ignored the gun and looked towards the couch. Jessie and Richard looked up in surprise. "We must surrender." He added sarcastically. When Reid saw Jessie on the couch, he turned his gun on Richard, who was Jessie's closest threat.

"Get away from her" Reid threatened. He didn't hear when the door shut behind him. Richard stood and held his hands out in surrender. Jessie looked around Reid to find John and he was lurking behind Reid like a shadow. A threat.

"Spencer!" she said and stood awkwardly. She put herself in front of Richard and shielded him. Reid didn't understand, and John watched suspiciously and mildly interested.

"You shouldn't be here." She said.

"I came to rescue you." Reid replied.

"Rescue me? From what? These are my friends!"

Reid frowned.

"You have to go. Tell everyone to stop looking for me because I'm not missing!" Jessie knew what she had to do to save Reid. And she got angry and took it out on him. "It got too much and I couldn't deal with it all, so I decided to leave. Everything's just circumstantial."

"You were kidnapped." Reid uttered.

"It was a stupid college prank. I didn't call you because I needed a clean break."

"Clean break?" Reid's muscles got really heavy. The gun lowered slowly.

"Don't you get it?" Jessie yelled. "I don't want you. You put too much pressure on me and so did Hotch. I don't want that job anymore than I want you. We fight too much and you're not good enough for me. You hardly understand me. Go! And leave us alone! I never want to see you again! I hate you!" Jessie didn't know what to do or say to emphasize her point. Just then, Richard took her hand and kissed it. He stared at her lovingly and pulled her into an embrace. Jessie took her eyes off Reid and turned into Richard's embrace. She heard the door open and close and when she looked up, Reid was gone. And John was staring at her lividly. She buried her face in Richard's chest, and buried Reid in her mind.

Reid stumbled to Morgan's car and got in the driver's seat. His main thought was to get it back to Morgan before he could get to Santio's house. He started the car and ineptly drove back to the park. As he drove into the parking lot, he saw Morgan talking on some random citizen's phone. Morgan saw Reid pull into the previous parking lot, and got alarmed when Reid's head flopped onto the steering wheel. Morgan ran to the driver's side and opened the door. Reid was limply leaning over the wheel and his hair covered his face. Morgan lifted him up and helped him out of the car.

"Reid ,man! What the hell happened?" Morgan asked, and when Reid didn't answer, Morgan suspected the worst. "Reid! Are you hurt?" he tried to see for any blood, but found none.

"It's over." Reid mumbled and gave in to the darkness that was towering over him.

"Reid! What happened? Where were you?" Morgan tried to hold Reid up and was surprised when Reid managed enough energy to push him away forcefully.

"Reid!" Prentiss parked her car and ran over. She threw her arms around Reid, just as he was about to collapse. She hugged him quickly and then helped him over to a bench where she sat him down.

"Reid, you need to focus for a second for me, okay?" Prentiss held his face to make him focus. "did you see Jessie?"

Reid tried to nod but couldn't make his muscles move. "yes." He finally whispered.

"is she alive?" Prentiss had to ask.

"Yes."

"Is she injured?"

"No."

"Reid. You have to tell me what happened."

"She hates me. She chose him. Everything's just circumstantial."

"What?" Prentiss was baffled. She didn't know what to say.

After that, Morgan and Prentiss managed to get Reid in a passenger seat of a car and back to the station. Prentiss told the others what Reid had told her. And everyone was flabbergasted. The BAU sat in a depressed state as they watched Reid emptying out. Garcia even cried. After a few tries, they got the whole story out of Reid and no one knew how to comfort him, or where they should go from there.