Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds
"JJ? What's going on? Is everyone alright?" Penelope asked, afraid of receiving the wrong answer.
"I don't know Penelope. Hold on…Hotch just radioed for a medic," JJ said breathlessly while she hurried closer to the building. Just as she reached the perimeter, Hotch gave the all clear, so she ran inside to check on everyone.
The sight of sixteen hysterical children, four overwrought workers, a SWAT member being handcuffed, Bellamy lying unmoving in a pool of blood, and the rest of the team gathered around someone lying on the ground greeted JJ. JJ dropped the forgotten phone on the floor and rushed towards her team to find who was injured.
"Hello? Hello?" Penelope called fruitlessly over the phone. She swiveled in her chair and addressed Amelia, "There's no answer. I don't know what's going on. I can keep track of the communications from here, but the danger seems to be gone now. Jason can drive you over to the scene if you want to get out of here, or you can stay with me and find out what happened as soon as they call back in."
Amelia felt she was going to crawl out of her skin if she sat around a moment longer. She looked towards Jason and Trudy, "Can you drive me over there please? I need to do something. I know I'll probably get in the way, but I don't want to wait anymore…and if Michael Bellamy is dead or back in handcuffs I want to look him in the eye and tell him that he's nothing to me."
Jason felt so proud of his sister that he couldn't manage any words, so he just nodded and led the way out of the office. They briefly stopped in the conference room to update Dr. Howard and collect their belongings before racing out of the building and into Jason's car in record time.
By the time they were almost at the crime scene, Penelope received a call back in her office.
"What's going on, what happened?" Penelope demanded as soon as she heard Hotch's voice.
Hotch rubbed his eyes tiredly, the whole situation was a mess, and the internal investigation afterwards was going to be even worse. "Bellamy is dead, the SWAT member shot him. When Bellamy moved to shoot the SWAT member back before he died, Reid jumped up to push him and ended up taking the shot himself."
"Oh no! Amelia, Jason, and Trudy are on their way over now. Is Reid going to be okay?" Penelope asked with tears choking her voice up.
"He took the shot in his side. The paramedics have taken him to the hospital, JJ is with him now. He should be okay though."
"I'll meet everyone there," Penelope said before disconnecting and grabbing her bag. On her way down to the parking lot, she called Amelia. There was no answer, so Penelope sent Hotch a text, letting him know that she couldn't get hold of Amelia to update her.
Amelia hadn't answered her phone, because at that exact moment she was walking up to Hotch. Emily had seen them at the back of the crowd and had waved them through.
Her lips trembling she fearfully looked up at the leader of the BAU team, "Where's Spencer, Aaron?"
Hotch hated this part of his job, "Reid is on his way to the hospital right now Amelia." He quickly continued before Amelia could go into a full melt down, "He's going to be fine, but he took a bullet through his side, so he's going into surgery and will have to recover for a couple of weeks. JJ is with him now, as soon as we have this wrapped up we are all heading over."
Amelia's breath rattled out; Spencer was hurt, but it wasn't life threatening, thank God. She looked back up, "Before I go over to the hospital, what happened to Michael Bellamy?"
Hotch didn't answer right away, he simply pointed towards a covered body being wheeled out, "He was shot and killed resisting arrest."
Amelia nodded and walked over to the paramedic who was wheeling the body to the ambulance, "May I?"
The medic looked at Hotch who had followed Amelia over. He nodded and the medic drew back the sheet to show Bellamy's still and lifeless face.
Amelia looked long and hard at the face of her tormentor, "I'm glad you're dead," she whispered with anger lacing her words, "I beat you and I'm never going to think about you again. Rot in hell."
She turned and walked back towards Jason without a backwards glance, "We have to go to the hospital. Spencer has been injured."
Jason took in Amelia's expression and decided to keep his questions for a later time. As they drove over to the hospital, the reality of Spencer being shot seemed to settle into Amelia's mind and she began to worry in earnest. Despite Hotch assuring her that Spencer would be alright, she was still concerned about how his recovery would go and what complications could arise as a result of the wound.
"Where's Spencer? How is he?" Amelia asked JJ breathlessly while she nervously shifted her weight from foot to foot.
JJ placed a reassuring hand on Amelia's shoulder and smiled encouragingly, "He's going to be just fine. The surgeon is removing the bullet now. He should be in recovery soon. The doctor said it was a clean shot, with no vitals hit; so there shouldn't be any complications."
Amelia felt her body sag in relief, and she allowed JJ to guide her over to the plastic waiting room seats so that she could collect herself.
"How do you guys do this to yourselves and to your family?" Amelia asked JJ in puzzled fright. She truly did not understand. This was terrifying, and she felt like she had just aged ten years.
"Normally, the cases aren't so close to home. It's easier when you can disassociate yourself from the grimmer aspects of the job. But the real question is, what we do if we didn't work here? What would happen to all those people that we help save or stop? No one ever said it was an easy job, but I think that the good we do outweighs the bad that we come across."
Amelia lapsed into silence and turned JJ's words over in her mind. They made sense, and she loved that Spencer used his brilliance to help save people. "I suppose you're right," Amelia finally said with a sheepish grin on her face.
JJ smiled back encouragingly and they resumed their vigil in companionable silence. When Jason and Trudy arrived, Amelia gave them a quick update before she thanked Jason and Trudy for being with her.
"Don't sweat it kid. You're family, and so is her. We wouldn't be anywhere else. Although, I would appreciate it if you two would stay out of hospitals from now on. There are a lot nicer places that we could go to spend time together."
"I'll second that," Rossi said as he and the rest of the team walked into the waiting room.
"Maybe we can plan something for when Spencer is released from the hospital," Amelia mused.
A short time later a doctor came through the OR doors and approached their group, "You must be waiting for Dr. Reid," when they all nodded and stood the doctor continued, "He's in recovery now. He was very lucky. The shot did minor damage and he should be good as new in a couple of weeks. Provided that there are no issues in the next 24 hours, he should be able to go home in 2 days. You are welcome to go in and sit with him once he's in his own room."
Hotch thanked the doctor, and was taken by surprise when he was tackled by Amelia, who enveloped him in a big hug. "Don't you dare ever change or leave this job Aaron. I need you to continue taking care of this family!"
"I'll second that," Penelope joined in with a beaming smile.
The group sat down once more, this time with cheerful banter being exchanged.
When they were finally able to go in and see Spencer, Amelia rushed into the room and critically eyed Spencer to ensure that nothing else was wrong with him. Spencer patiently waited for her to finish before he opened his arms up in a welcoming hug.
"Hi sweetheart. How are you doing?"
Amelia glared at him in shock, "You rush off to face a psychopath, jump in front of a bullet, and ask me how I'm doing?!"
Spencer looked helplessly at his friends, but they were too busy hiding grins and chuckles to be of any help.
"Well, I didn't jump in front of the bullet, I was knocking someone else out of the way. There's a difference," Spencer attempted to soothe Amelia.
"Don't you dare try to argue semantics with me Spencer Reid," Amelia bit out mulishly, "You had me half scared to death."
"I'm sorry," Spencer hesitantly tried again in an effort to placate Amelia while she smoothed imaginary wrinkles out of his hospital sheets. A grin itched at the corners of his mouth, he wasn't used to someone worrying this much over him, and as crazy as it sounded, he was really touched that she was mad at him. His mother had never worried about him like this, since the majority of the time she was lost in her delusions. "I'll do my best to not jump in front of any more bullets."
Amelia decided to accept Spencer's olive branch, she had learned that time was too precious to spend it mad over something that was beyond her control. She turned towards the rest of the team and asked, "So what's going to happen to the SWAT guy? It doesn't seem fair that he's going to go to jail for all of this."
Hotch paused for a moment, "Honestly? I think he'll get off fairly light. I doubt he'll get charged for murder, because technically Bellamy was shot while resisting arrest. It's more likely that he'll be charged for aiding and abetting a criminal to escape. Even then, I don't think he'll get too harsh of a sentence. Given what Bellamy did to his sister, I don't think anyone will really want to try him to the full extent of the law."
"Good, because I personally think the guy deserves an award for cleaning the city of filth," Amelia said defiantly from her perch on the beside Spencer, "in fact, I think I'll bake him some cookies."
Just then, Spencer's stomach rumbled and he looked towards Amelia hopefully, "Would you make me cookies? I helped save lives today."
Amelia arched her eyebrow at Spencer, "I'll think about it."
Out of the corner of his eye, Spencer could see Morgan doubled over, laughing, "One day this is going to happen to you Morgan. Just you wait, and when that day comes I'm going to be the one laughing. Notice how the other two men who've been married aren't laughing at the situation."
Penelope elbowed Morgan in the side and she hissed, "he's got a point you know. Cut boy genius here some slack."
Morgan held his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. I know when I'm beaten. How about a peace offering? I can go grab some food for everyone."
Everyone nodded their assent, and Derek headed out the door with Penelope on his arm.
Later, after everyone else had left and Amelia was finally alone with Spencer, she cuddled in close to him, "You really scared me today."
Spencer sighed sadly, "I know, and I'm truly sorry, but there were innocent people who needed my help. There was nothing I could do about it."
"I know that, its part of who you are, and I love you for it. It just made me realize something though. Life is too precious to spend worrying about trifles. I love you-"
"I love you too," Spencer jumped in with a quick squeeze to her hand.
Amelia smiled back, "I know. I'm just trying to say that, I love you so much that I've realized I don't need all the extra frills for our wedding. All I need is you...in one piece preferably. So before anything else crazy happens, why don't we go and get married as soon as you are released? We can go to Vegas so your mom can join us. What do you think?"
Spencer thought about it; no year long preparations, no endless questions about flowers or seating plans, and Amelia as his wife that much sooner. "Las Vegas is known as the elopement capital of the world due to the ease of obtaining a marriage license. Unlike most other locations, there is no waiting period or blood test required once you file for marriage and pay the $60 fee."
"Spencer! You didn't answer my question!"
Spencer brought his hand up to softly cup Amelia's cheek, "That's because the answer is obvious Amy, I will marry you however and whenever I can get you. If a huge, flowery wedding is what you want, I'll do it. If a quick wedding in Las Vegas is what you want, I'll pack my bag and be at the airport as soon as I can leave this bed. Sooner, if you'll pack it for me."
Happy tears streamed down Amelia's face, "Penelope is going to be so disappointed that she's not going to be able to help me plan this wedding afterall."
Spencer coughed, "I doubt we'll be able to keep any of them away, so you might as well call them and let them know the change of plan. I'm sure Penelope can have the full list of wedding locations created within seconds of you telling her. That way you can choose which place you want."
Amelia nodded happily, "Okay, I'll do that. Why don't you get some sleep so I can become Mrs. Spencer Reid."
The couple embraced and Amelia headed out the door, on the way she pulled out her phone, "Penelope? There's been a change of plan. Can you..."
"You may now kiss the bride."
Spencer uncharacteristically swooped his arm around Amelia and pulled her in tight for a dramatic kiss. The entire BAU team, Jason, Trudy, Melissa, and Diana Reid all cheered the couple on. Penelope had used her information hunting skills to find a beautiful, quaint chapel to get married in and had arranged for a flight for everyone. It had helped that Dave offered to charter them a small jet so that they could leave as soon as Spencer was released from the hospital.
When they broke apart, Amelia's eyes shone like stars, "I will love you forever Dr. Reid."
"And I will love you even longer Mrs. Reid."
A/N: See! Nothing to worry about. I promised that Amelia and Spencer would have a fluffy, happy ending. I hope the wait was worthwhile!
