Chapter 28

Washington MedStar Hospital
Washington DC

Spencer woke feeling like he had been gone over by a baseball bat. Everything hurt. Really, everything. "Urg." He said to no one in particular. He didn't even know if anyone was in the room, twitching his eyes hurt, Opening them was going to hurt more/

"Spencer?" A familiar voice asked, very quietly.

Spencer opened his eyes, which hurt, and looked at the two blurry figures standing by the bed. From the colors of the blurs he suspected one was Essa, the other was Derek's wife Savannah. "What happened?" He croaked.

"A miracle." Savannah said.

"You were poisoned." Essa said. "But you're going to be all right."

"I don't know how but he's right." Savannah replied. "Just rest more."

Splendid idea. Spencer closed his eyes and drifted back out.


When he woke again it was lighter. The sheets were as soft as the ones on the island. The air did not smell as sweet but it was close. And there was a rush of white noise covering the usual sounds of machines.

And he felt safe. Safe and cared for, and loved.

"Hey." Another familiar voice said.

Spencer opened his eyes and squinted. "Can I have my glasses?"

"Sure." The blurry person put his glasses on his nose and popped into focus. "How are you feeling?" Emily asked, her voice low and soft.

"Less battered." Not sitting up yet. But Spencer looked around the room. Sure enough, Sin was on the guest cot/window seat, snoring lightly. well, no need to wake him. "I was poisoned?"

"Yeah. We're going to want to talk to you about it. Officially. When your doctor will let us, he's kind of a hard ass."

Spencer had to smile at that.


The next time Spencer woke up he was able to find his own glasses. He found Sin sitting beside the bed reading a book. "Nice to see you alive." Sin said.

"Thanks. Okay, I have to admit it, feel better when I'm around you." Spencer replied.

"Good to know. I feel better when I'm around you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that whole pheromone thing? It makes us companions go, how do the Terrans put it, all Mama Bear on our Nobles. You're not going to get rid of me now if you tried."

"Really?"

"I've seen two sisters and three brothers go through this. There is no point in fighting. Anyway I could make you feel even better but the beds are too small."

"You would climb into bed with me?"

"Sure." Sin looked up and gave him a sweet, lazy smile. "And no, not just because it would help"

"Really?" Spencer was still too out of it to find anything else to say.

"Yeah."

"Does this mean we're dating?"

"Dating. Very Terran concept. But sure, we can try dating. Although I do have a confession to make first. When you're out of here."

"Does it involve mass murder or anything else illegal?"

"Hmmm, no. I've just been breaking into your apartment and spying on you in my off time."

Spencer chuckled at that. "If that was true I wouldn't mind. Okay, we're dating."

"All right."

"You know I'm only relaxed enough to say this because I'm drugged to the gills."

"I'm taking advantage of that."


The next time Spencer woke up Penelope had come to visit. "I had to come back three times." She told him. "Your doctor said I was too colorful for your nervous system."

"I have no clue what that means." Spencer looked. "Remember when we talked about finding my alien cuddle bunny?"

"Yeah?"

"Where is Sin?"

"The cafeteria. We made him. And I approve."


The next day, he had no idea how many after he was poisoned, Spencer was finally able to stay upright long enough to talk to the FBI. He expected Emily, he expected another agent, but he did not expect the third man at all. "Hotch!"

"Spencer." His former boss said quietly. "Glad to see you up and moving."

"Yeah. Essa said I might go home tomorrow. Do you know what happened?"

"You were poisoned with a nerve agent." The other agent said. "A Novichok agent. We're not certain how yet. We found traces on your door handle but not quite enough."

"A Russian nerve agent?" Spencer still felt a little physically off but his brain was revving back up. "Why are the Russians after me?"

"It's not just you. You're the fifth poisoning on US soil in the past year and a half."

"If it's espionage it's not technically a serial."

"Yes, but we can still use some techniques." Hotch said. "Specifically victimology. You don't fit our victim pool."

"Who were the other victims?"

Hotch spoke three names and "…Dorian Loker."

"Dorian?"

"You two knew each other?" The other agent asked.

"Yeah." Spencer replied. "We went out a few times. It didn't work but we stayed friends. What happened?" No, he knew. He just didn't want to.

But it wasn't going to go away. "Spencer." Emily said. "Novichok agents are extremely toxic to humans. Usually lethal. You only recovered completely because you're…not."

Oh. Damn it. Spencer pushed that into it's own compartment, to be dealt with later. "So what does your victim pool have in common?"

"They were all agents dealing with the Russian Mob." The other agent said. "They also all spoke Russian and were all in the process of translating communications between targets."

"What were they translating?"

"We don't know." Hotch said. "They each came to us and said they had intercepted communications between people that was concerning. And they were uncomfortable with the way their command structure was handling the evidence. By the time we found them their work had been destroyed."

"Dorian said she didn't know who she could trust in her office anymore." Spencer said. "Who is we?"

Hotch took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, that's classified."

"I've been getting a lot of that lately. Spencer replied.

"Did Agent Loker ever share any of her evidence with you?" Hotch asked.

"She did." Spencer replied. "And now that there's context it's…um…"

'Did she give you a copy?" The other agent asked.

"Agent Reid has a court-certified eidetic memory." Hotch replied. "He is the copy."

"We're going to need to put security on him." The other agent said. "I don't know who we can trust but we're going to have to do something."

"I wonder if that was who was in my apartment." Spencer said.

"In your apartment?" Hotch asked.

"When we were out on our last case. I asked Penelope to stop and feed my cat. She said it looked like there was a break in but there was no sign of any actual breaking. She put security video up to try to catch someone. I don't think anyone's been in since though."

"Let's see it." Hotch said.

While Emily set up Spencer's laptop the other agent said "I'm going to go see about a security detail." And stepped out.

It wasn't hard to log in to the video program. They set it to play rapidly, which it did, through hours of empty apartment. They slowed it down a little when Spencer came home, but there was nothing. And nothing through the next day as well. Then Spencer came home the night he was hit. "They didn't plant anything inside his apartment." Emily said.

"It has to be the doorknob." Hotch replied. "They've used that before. It's a pattern."

Spencer settled in, got comfortable, let a grey tabby in through the window. He cooked dinner, and started having a text conversation with someone. "Who are you chatting with?" Emily asked.

"A Q noblewoman named Sarah. In English." Spencer replied. He could feel himself blushing. "We were talking about…books."

"Is that what the aliens call it?" Hotch said mildly.

Spencer settled in to dinner. "You're spoiling that cat." Emily said. Then he got up to put things away and take the trash out. "Right there." She said. "You touched the door handle without gloves."

As they watched he washed his hands, too late, stopped to make cocoa, tried to head back to the living room, and fell over like a tree.

"Wait. This doesn't fit." Emily said. "Dr. Linalter said you called for help. You're not moving, when did you call?"

"I couldn't have." Spencer replied. He was in obvious distress and laying on his phone. "I don't remember anything after making cocoa."

They watched as the cat came over and sniffed at Spencer's hair, at his cheek. As he licked him to try to get him to move. They watched as he moved and crouched a short distance away.

And then light shimmered around him.

Strings, Spencer thought, It was strings of energy, flowing between the space where his cat had been and somewhere else. Some other dimension somewhere else.

After a moment the light resolved itself.

The cat was gone.

Sin was crouching over him.