Title: The Clockwork Boy
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Creatures of the Night (Part 2)
Pairing: Reid/Austin, Morgan/Prentiss; JJ/Hotch
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: The BAU is divided by two cases that tests their loyalties. Some things are found. Some things are lost. Some things were never really meant to be.
Author's Note: At the end

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Blood.

The smell, the taste, it's so overpowering that Emily can barely breathe. It had been okay with just two bodies, but now she can smell so much blood that she's almost choking on it, four different hearts beating at four vastly different speeds.

'JJ!' Morgan calls out, and Emily has just enough sense of mind to pull herself out of that reveries. That tantalizing, tempting reverie. It would be so easy to let go of everything, to indulge.

There's blood dripping from her arm, just above the elbow, but it barely even stings. Doesn't even register. JJ's not so lucky.

The psychic had tackled Reid out of the way, taking a bullet in the process. The heartbeat is slow…fading.

Emily and Morgan share a look, communicating without a single word. Morgan's at JJ's side in a second, and Emily goes for the man that had pulled the trigger. He's strangely unresponsive, overcome, it seems, by the death of his partner. The bullet (whose bullet? Hers? Morgan's?) had hit the woman in the heart. Her body's limp, lifeless. Tension cut like a rubber band stretched too far.

'Austin?' he asks, voice a little disbelieving.

It's half a second before Emily realizes that the man – Riley? – isn't the only one staring. Reid is torn, eyes darting between JJ, Morgan's hands pushing a wad of balled up gauze to her chest, and the other woman – Austin.

Her heart breaks for him just a little, as she remembers that his father is lying there dead, as well, though he seems a little less broken up about that fact.

Reid looks towards Riley. 'You killed her,' he says. His voice is soft, calm, but at the same time it's one of the most dangerous things that Emily has ever heard. She holds Riley's wrists together with one hand, searching for her cuffs with the other, but she's not entirely sure there's going to be enough time before Reid crash-tackles them both to the ground.

'Spencer.' Dr. Gideon speaks, and Emily gives a half jump in surprise. She'd almost forgotten he was there. 'This isn't the way.'

'She'd still be alive if it weren't for him,' Reid protests.

'I know.'

Riley's crying; loud, wet sobs that almost make her feel some kind of sympathy, but he's just killed three people (one of them indirectly) and may well have killed a fourth. Gripping him by the cuffs, she turns to Morgan, who's half soaked in JJ's blood.

It smells like copper, and Emily can almost taste it on the back of her tongue.

'How is she?' Emily asks. She doesn't really need to ask; she can still hear the heartbeat – not weak, but not strong, either.

'Holding on,' he says grimly.

'I called an ambulance,' Gideon provides, and Reid says nothing. There are tears in his eyes, though, and there's no doubt that he's upset – whether it's because of Austin's death, or because of the whole damn situation, it's hard to tell.

Still.

Emily knows what betrayal's like, and she doesn't particularly blame him.

Backup accompanies the ambulance, and Emily passes off Riley to the Argadnel Police Department, who survey the scene with curiosity. She almost considers joining Morgan in the ambulance to accompany JJ to the hospital, but it's probably not a good idea for her to be in a place with so many open wounds.

There's still a bullet in her arm though, which a paramedic removes at the scene. An awkward silence is hanging in the air, with both Reid and Gideon giving each other looks. They both have questions that need answering, and neither of them is particularly inclined to do it with anyone else around.

'We don't need you here,' she tells them. 'Take a walk – get some air.' Reid gives her a grateful look, to which she just nods. 'Call me when you're done.'

She bites her lip as she stares at the circles of blood that have painted the floor.

It's going to be a lot of paperwork.

…

Once you get past the kitschy tourist gimmicks, and the neon lights, Argadnel is a fairly unremarkable city. To Reid, though, it's still surreal:

Today is the first day he sees with open eyes.

This man – Dr. Gideon – is responsible for bringing him into the world, and he needs to know why. There's still a part of him that thinks that no matter the reason, it's never going to be enough to justify what had been done to him.

'How are you, Spencer?' Gideon asks, and it's simultaneously the most frustrating and the most inadequate question that he has ever heard. To this man, all Reid is is an experiment. To this man, the real Spencer Reid is dead.

And that's the moment when Spencer Reid realizes the truth.

It's like a sledgehammer, crashing into him, knocking all the air from his lungs.

He doesn't need to know the reason why.

He doesn't need to know how, or what, or who.

All he knows is that he is his mother's son.

And really, that's enough.

For today.

Author's Note: I am in need of a title for Part Three! My main contenders so far are The Fallen, These Endless Days and To Darkness All. Without context, which of these do you like best?

Please review.