Chapter 29

"I am so sorry love." Jem said.

Spencer Reid was more than a little woozy with non-narcotic pain relievers, antibiotics, and whatever else they were running into him. "Don't be..."

"But..."

"Stop."

"But..."

"This is not the first time I've been shot in the line of duty. I am an FBI agent too you know. As long as Kristi is safe and the team is working on it..."

"She is and they are."

"Then don't feel guilty. If you do then they win."

Jem sighed. "I'll try." He said. "Is there anything I can do to make this at all better?"

Spencer pretended to consider for a moment. "Does the hospital have any Jell-o?"


BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

JJ and Morgan carpooled in a few weeks later, after a three-day week-end. They met Dave in the lobby and all shared an elevator. It wasn't anything special. Until they met Garcia in the elevator lobby on their floor, and all of a sudden it became a day. "Reid and Jem are here." Garcia said. "So is Alex."

"I thought she wasn't coming back." JJ said.

"She's not, at least not to the BAU. They're meeting with Strauss and the head of Org Crime and the Director. As in the Director Director."

"Now that is big." Morgan said. By then they were all through the main doors. "Whoa." He said as he stopped in his tracks.

When you walked into the elevator lobby there were two hallways, one off to the left, one to the right, and the big double doors straight ahead. Once through those double doors the break area was on the right and to the left was a partition made of file cabinets that ran the length of the room. On the far side was the bullpen, on the near side against the wall was the usual clutter of office equipment, copier, printers and such. At the end of that partition were the stairs to go up to the catwalk, a door back out into that first left hand hallway, and just past that Garcia's Lair. The point being that you could get out into that hallway and to the Lair from both the bullpen side and from that crowded office space behind the partition.

Or rather you used to be able to go that way. Because now those office machines had been moved, making that a walkable space. And where the stairs had been a ramp now turned and snaked into the bullpen, blocking off that doorway. To get back to the hall and to the Lair you had to go around the partition.

It wasn't the changed traffic flow that shocked them. It was what it meant. "So, he's coming back?" JJ asked.

"That's what the bossman said." Garcia replied. "He said we need his brains, and we could work around it. He even ordered modifications to the plane, and the Director okayed it."

"And the doctors are okay with this?" Dave asked.

"I guess so."

"Yeah, but there's no way he's coming back to full duty." Morgan said. "It's going to be like when he was shot the last time, he's going to be at the station most of the time. With Alex gone that still leaves us shorthanded."

"I wonder who's going to fill that slot." JJ said.


To: The 'aiga
From : JT

OK everyone say hello to Alex. She's been transferred to our unit on my end. Since I'm going to be in the field more often she's going to be there when you guys need someone right away. I'll still be around, It'll just take me longer to get back to you sometimes. She's an FBI agent with lots of experience and a full briefing about what you're all dealing with. She's also a professor at Georgetown teaching Forensic Linguistics. Odds are whatever it is she can handle it. Try to be gentle with her.

...

"And they're all undergrads." Alex said. She was staring as her phone blew up with texts.

"Mostly. " Jem replied. "A couple are military, I've graduated two now."

"This might be a nightmare."

"You wanted to be out of the field. You wanted something you could do from Boston so you could be with your husband..."

"And I couldn't bear seeing Spencer hurt again." She replied with a sigh.

Jem eased his hip up on to the nearest desk. There was something more there. "Talk to me." He said.

Alex took a deep breath. "Did I ever tell you about my son Ethan?"


Sometime later Morgan smiled as a familiar figure came into the bullpen. "So where's your other half?" He asked.

"Just finishing up." Jem replied. "The Director wanted to talk to him for a minute." He was carrying a box in his hands. Now he looked around the pen. "Which desk was Alex's?"

"Why?" All of a sudden it dawned on Morgan. "You the new recruit?"

Jem took a deep breath. "Temporarily, yeah." He replied. "They want me out of Org Crime until they find the mole, I've got a lot of experience with NPD and BPD in criminal cases and you guys need more muscle right now."

"Oh that's great!" JJ said. No one spoke of the other reason. "She had this one." She gestured to the one next to her. "Welcome to the crazy."

"What, they think I can't kick in doors anymore?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, but between the two of you you can kick in bank vaults." JJ replied.

Jem set his box down on the desk in question. "Apparently I'm supposed to spend however long it takes getting briefed on the kind of suspects you deal with."

"Unsub." JJ corrected. "Unlike most other units we don't start with a suspect and find a crime, we start with a crime and find the Unknown Subject who committed it. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Any idea where you want to start?"

"I was going to start him off with Floyd Ferell." Spencer said as he joined them.

"Also known as why we never eat chili anymore." JJ nodded. "Sink or swim huh?"

"Might as well." He looked from her to Morgan and to Garcia who had joined them, and then gestured to the wheelchair he was sitting in. "You can ask. It's okay."

"Are you in that for good?" Garcia asked.

"Hopefully not." Spencer replied. "But we won't know for another twelve months, nine if I'm lucky."

"Why so long?"

"Because I was shot in my left knee once before there was substantially more damage. They have to wait for the ends of the tibia and femur to heal before they can replace the joint on that side. I have seven pins in there right now holding everything together."

They collectively winced. "What about your other knee?" JJ asked.

"It's great. I can get around on crutches without a problem. But you can really only spend so much time in a day on crutches and I can't put any weight at all on my other leg."

"True."

"So I can think of this as a temporary thing and not be too totally upset." Garcia said.

Spencer smiled. "Yes, you can. It's just a long form of temporary. So who wants to go to the conference room and help me tell Jem why we don't eat chili anymore?"