Hey everyone, here is the next chapter for you all. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you to everyone that voted on my poll. It's now closed. The new fanfic is going to posted tomorrow. I am so excited to write it! Lucky for you all, I was able to replace my reading glasses so I could write this. Hard to read the screen without them. Love my new pair.
Thank you so much for all the reviews, they are amazing and brilliant. You are all wonderful! Thank you!
Enjoy and please review
All mistakes are my own
Monday evening
Reid stood outside the centre facing the team, they had all just arrived back from the office. He hated seeing the sad look upon their faces. He looked back to the centre and saw a small, dark-haired nurse waiting for him at the door. Reid took a deep breath and faced the team again.
"I guess it's time for me to go in," Reid said sadly. "You can come and visit me when you want and I can start supervised visits in the next few days. Thank you for helping me settle in and getting my things packed away."
"We will come and visit you all the time and you can visit us day and night," Garcia said, her eyes on the edge of tears. "I know that they will take care of you better than I did. I'm sorry."
Reid stepped forward and brought Garcia into a hug. "Garcia, you look after me brilliantly. I just need to do this. This is the best way for us. I can get better and everyone can live their life properly. I know that you could all look after me but I don't want to place that on your shoulders. I don't know how long this is going to take. My recovery may take a short amount of time or a long amount of time. This placed will help me for as long as I need. I'll call you everyday. I promise I will."
Garcia came away from the hug and stroked her hand through his hair.
"You better," Garcia smiled gently. "If anything goes wrong or you want to leave. Just call me and I will race down here faster than light."
"She will, Reid," Morgan said from her side. "Take care of yourself, Reid. Call us for anything."
JJ stepped forward with a small teddy bear, one no bigger than Reid's hand and handed it to Spencer. "Henry wanted me to give this to you. I told him that you were going to be away for a while. He wanted you to have this. He said it would protect you."
Reid took the bear and couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as he held the bear. He held it in his hand and looked up at JJ. "Thanks JJ, tell Henry I'll keep it safe."
"Are you sure about this?" Hotch asked as he stepped forward.
"I'm sure," Reid nodded. "This is what I need to do. I can't keep waking up during the night and screaming. It isn't healthy. I need to find a way to control my nightmares and stopped myself from losing control of myself. My anger, my fear, they all need to be controlled. This place is going to help me while also giving me the comfort of knowing I can leave at anytime. I'll be fine. I need to do this to know if I can come back or not. Don't hold my place open, Hotch. Give another agent a chance. I'll come back if I can."
"Reid, you will come back. You are strong enough to get through this and come back," Emily encouraged.
"Reid, your position will be filled temporarily but if you choose to come back, which I hope you will, your place is there waiting for you. You have been part of the BAU for a long time. We take care of family. Reid, call us anytime you want and call us if you need anything. Take care of yourself," Hotch said before stepped forward and bringing Reid in a strong hug. Reid hugged him back for a few seconds before withdrawing from the hug. Reid walked up to Emily and said goodbye and did the same with Rossi. He stepped back and felt himself frozen for a moment. The fear of going somewhere unknown was stronger than he had ever felt before.
"See you soon," Reid said, his voice tight and worried. "Bye."
Five minutes later
Reid walked with the nurse towards his room. He had already packed away his things. All his clothing was there along with a large collection of books and other thing. Things from his home that made the transition easier for him. Garcia had added her own flair of things. He was just happy to be able to have the items. His assessment found that he wasn't a suicide risk. The centre had two units. A unit for those who had to stay till there mental state was better, that unit for people who had severe mental heath issues. His unit was voluntary. Unless he be deemed a risk to himself or others, he would maintain and keep the right to leave when he wanted. The nurse opened the door and smiled when she took in his room.
"Your friends certainly know how to decorate a room," the nurse smiled.
"They just wanted me to be as comfortable as possible. They always worry about me," Reid explained shyly.
"This is our biggest room. I'm sure you will be comfortable here. You have no dietary restrictions so you can visit our canteen area for whatever you need. You have your first session with Dr Briggs tomorrow. This is also for you," the nurse said before holding out a small notebook and handing it to him. "We encourage people to journal their experience here. It helps to write the things down. Some people can't always explain how they feel with words but they can always explain how they feel in their writing."
"Okay," Reid nodded.
"You will be placed on medication but they are very mild. Your notes say that you suffer from strong headaches, anxiety and sometimes you get scared. The medication we are giving you will help with the headache and we are giving you a mild anti-depressant to help."
"I can't have the antidepressant," Reid said quickly. "I can't have narcotics or anything that I could get addicted to. Past issues."
"Okay, we will find an alternative for you. Something suited to your needs. You won't start them till tomorrow," the nurse said as she placed a note on her clipboard. "We know you have other issues but we will help you with them. We encourage you to dress as you did before the incident that brought you here. We want you to feel safe here. After three days, you can go out for supervised visits. A nurse will come with you and bring you back. You have access to our computer room and we also have a library but I see your friends have already brought plenty of books for to read."
"I'm a bit worried about being here," Reid admitted.
"Please, don't feel worried," the nurse urged gently. "A lot of people have been helped here since the centre opened. Talk with other people here. Socialise with everyone and you will see that this is a good place. We don't push you to do anything you are not ready to do. We believe in giving people what they need but in their own time."
"I understand. I came here because I wanted my friends to have the responsibility of looking after me off their shoulders. They've already done so much for me. I want them to have a life, not spend it away from their families to look after me."
"I understand. Be assured that we will give you the best care here. I'll leave you to settle in. A nurse will come and get you for your session tomorrow. Would you like someone to wake you up in the morning?"
"Yes please," Reid said
"Goodnight, Spencer. See you tomorrow," the nurse said before heading to the door.
"Wait, what's your name?" Reid asked.
"My name is Harper," she answered.
"Goodnight, Harper," Reid smiled back. Harper smiled and walked out of the door, closing it as she left. Reid looked around the room for a moment, he slowly sat down on his bed. He knew this was the right thing to do but he couldn't help but feel sad deep down. He wasn't going to be able to curl up on the sofa with Garcia after a nightmare and have her calm him down. He had to do this on his own.
Thursday
Garcia sat her computer in her office. She was waiting for vicap results to come back as well as waiting for the team to board the jet. She looked at Reid's picture and felt a sad. She felt disappointed in herself for not looking after him enough. He had called everyday and told her he was okay. Just like he promised. Garcia was about to call the team when she her computer began to ring. She jumped forward and accepted the video call when she saw the name. She secured the video call and smiled happily as Reid came up on her screen.
"Reid, it's so good to see you. Even if it is on a webcam," Garcia said.
"Hey Garcia, is everything okay?" Reid said on the screen. Garcia noticed he looked a little pale.
"Reid, everything is fine here. Are you okay? You look awfully pale," Garcia asked.
"Side effect of one of my medications, they are changing it. I stopped being sick last night. I'm fine. I had a nightmare last night, that was scariest part of last night."
Garcia was about to talk when another video call was coming through. It was the team on the jet. "Reid, hold on a moment."
Garcia answered the other call to see the team.
"Morning, babygirl," Morgan said to the screen. "Have those results come through yet?"
"Not yet," Garcia answered. "Guys, someone else is here. Hang on."
Garcia did some computer magic and connected Reid's video call so the rest of the team could see him and so that Reid could see the team.
"Reid!" JJ smiled as she saw Reid wave gently at the webcam.
"Hey, pretty boy. How are you feeling? You doing okay?"
"I'm doing fine. I felt scared the first night but it was okay after that. I shouldn't have disturbed you all while you were at work. I'll call back later," Reid said.
"Reid, don't you dare hit that disconnect button," Garcia warned quickly. "We have some time so talk to us."
"I can come and visit after today is over. If you call me when you get back, I can come and visit. I can talk to you properly then," Reid explained to them. "What case are you working on?
"Reid, it's a bad one. I don't think you want to know," Morgan said quickly.
"Oh, okay," Reid said, slight disappointment in his voice.
"We have an unsub who has sent a coded message, we don't know what is means. He's killed five people."
They watched Reid looked around for a moment. "Can I see it? I might be able to help you."
Hotch pulled the note out and showed it to the webcam. They watched Reid put on his glasses and study the note.
"He wants a man called David Gregory released. He is going to kill a person each day if his demand is not met."
The team sat there for a moment completely amazed. Hotch couldn't help the smile on his face.
"Reid, how do you know that?" Emily asked.
"The symbols are just a mix of different languages. Each separate letter is in a different language. You have about five different languages there. You have arabic, Japanese and more. I can email you a complete translation if you want."
"That would help, Reid."
"Just glad I could help. I miss being around you all," Reid admitted.
"We miss you too," Garcia smiled gently.
Please review
