My Christmas Eve post might be up a little earlier so I can get my Christmas post up earlier. For those wondering: I'm spending Christmas with my cousin Liz, whose mom has dementia and doesn't know my mom is dead. We're going to lie and say she's sick if she thinks to ask, which she might not as she doesn't always recognize Liz. This is why I have no issue with spoiling the daylights out of the Liz's two kids.
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
The rich aroma of coffee filled the air amid the cacophony of whirring machines and crowds of chattering customers. This place felt like home to Reid as he waited in line for his usual order at the coffee shop.
Then he saw it. A grease-stained t-shirt and jeans.
Reid kept telling himself it wasn't him. The line began to move and he heard his voice. It was a deep baritone sound.
Suddenly the man had his hand on his throat.
"No," Reid said. "You are not here."
"You okay mister?" the barista said as he came to the front of the line.
Reid blinked. No one was holding his throat.
"I'm never okay until I've had my morning coffee," he said with a laugh.
She smiled.
"What'll it be?"
"Vente black with lots of sugar."
"Name?"
"Spencer."
"ANIMAL!"
Reid ignored him.
"That'll be three-fifty."
He handed her his card.
"YOU'LL ALWAYS BE JUST A FILTHY ANIMAL!"
Reid signed the receipt.
"It'll be right up," she said.
He stepped to the side and waited. Reid felt Uris's heavy breathing on his neck.
"You don't deserve coffee. You only deserve what I give you, because you're weak and pathetic."
Reid ignored him as he waited.
"You are nothing!"
Reid knew Uris had no power over him if he didn't respond to his taunts. He wasn't going to let Uris win.
"Done!" Ormes shouted.
Reid pulled off the virtual reality headset.
"That was impressive," Juno said.
"Your coffee," Ormes said as she handed him a mug.
"Only one weird utterance," Reid said after taking a sip. "I'm getting better."
"I'll say," Juno said.
They were in a situation simulation room. This one had a coffee machine to add actual smells to give the setting a greater sense of reality.
"I'm amazed at how far virtual reality had advanced," Reid said.
"It has become one of our favorite tools for simulating the real world in a controlled setting," Ormes said.
"Uris feels so real, but I know I'm imagining him in every setting," Reid said. "But I'm fighting back, his voices aren't controlling my choices."
"This is the fifth simulation we've run," Ormes said. "You've completed them all satisfactorily."
Juno and Ormes exchanged a look.
"Where would you like to go?" Juno asked.
Reid knew exactly where.
…
Juno, Ormes, and Reid left at sunrise before the media arrived in a van with tinted windows. Reid clutched his flowers tightly. This would be his third trip outside of Mercer after a visit to another institution, and the mall. They wove through the growing traffic in DC. It still felt so foreign to be out and about.
The grass was dewy as they walked across the cemetery. It didn't take long to find his mother's headstone.
"Love will not be constrain'd by mastery. When mast'ry comes, the god of love anon Beateth his wings, and, farewell, he is gone. Love is a thing as any spirit free."
Geoffrey Chaucer
Diana Reid
1960-2021
Loving Mother
"Hi, Mom," he said. "I'm sorry it took so long for me to get here. I miss you mom. You are everything to me. I'd wonder how I would go on if I ever got out. Now I do. I need to live. I need to live for you, in your honor. Every day is another day to make you proud. I'll never stop being the son you loved so much. I love you mom."
"Keep digging boy."
Reid jumped.
"Tobias?"
"You're a sinner," he said menacingly. "You deserve to die like one."
Reid gripped the flowers harder.
"I won't let you win. None of you. Uris, Hankel, Cat. None of you have power over me. My name is Dr. Spencer Reid. I am stronger than all of you!"
Reid put the flowers in the vase by his mother's grave and kissed her name without worrying about germs. He stood up and walked to where Juno and Ormes were standing.
"Hankel appearing," he said. "That's new."
"Your flashbacks are shifting as you enter a new stage of recovery," Juno said. "Let's get you back to the institute."
"That sounds good," he said. "Can we go through the drive through for Starbucks?"
Ormes smiled.
"That's fine."
Reid looked one last time at his mother's grave and wiped a few tears away.
…
Since it was raining, Reid and Iris played checkers for a change.
"So, during the special, Mallory Lang said that Spall would buy her these expensive gifts to keep her from asking him to divorce his wife," Iris said. "She often wondered where the money came from but was too scared as he liked to shoot his gun at beer cans when he was drunk."
Reid had only learned of the sheriff and hospital's involvement in his captivity a month ago. It shocked him, but it also explained how Uris was able to evade authorities when he was paying them to keep his secrets.
He sighed.
"What's on your mind?" she asked.
"What do you dream about after this?" he said.
"Losing to you and seeing if Gossip Girl is any good. I've heard it's not."
"I'm serious, Iris," he said.
"Really, I want a dog. A big, stupid, dog. I've wanted one since I was a kid but my mom was allergic. I want a big lab that worships the ground I walk on for feeding and playing with him. I wouldn't mind the slobber. I just want something that loves me back unconditionally."
"I think that's what we both want in the end," Reid said. "To feel loved."
"We're stuck here for a bit longer, Spencer. I try not to think too far ahead. We're both doing the best we can. You're not freaking out as much and I'm softening up. We're changing in here. Who knows what we'll be when we leave?"
"That is one interesting question," Reid said.
"I think, I hope, a better more stable people," she said. "I want to believe we're going to be okay. What do you think?"
"I think," Reid said slowly. "You're right."
"As always," she said with a smile.
…
Reid woke up in the middle of the night. Something wasn't right. He felt it in his gut. There was something wrong in the air.
He ran out of his room and took the elevator to the roof. The code had been cracked ages ago by a covert group effort during the evening hours. Someone redid the code for new lock on the door to the roof. Reid typed in the day Iris was abducted. It clicked open.
Iris was standing on the roof wearing nothing but a bra and underwear clutching an envelope.
"He found me," she said. "Francois Lacourt found me."
"He can't hurt you Iris," Reid said. "He isn't here."
She threw him the envelope. Reid looked at it under the bright moon. Inside were pictures of her in therapy with a note in French saying: "You are mine forever. I will get you back, Iris. Love, Francois."
"I'm sorry Spencer," she said as she cried. "I can't be your rock anymore. I love you Spencer, but I need to go."
"Iris, this was written by a woman," he shouted desperately.
"You're lying!" she screamed.
"Iris, the curve is off. Women's handwriting tilts to the left while men tilt to the right. The I's are slightly heart-shaped. Someone is messing with you Iris. Can't you see that!?"
"It doesn't matter," she said. "Some one'll want me back. Someone, will take me. The minute I step out of here, I'll be captured again. Goodbye Spencer."
"MAEVE!" He screamed.
She turned back.
"Who the Hell is that?" she asked
"Get off the ledge and I'll tell you," he said.
"That's not going to work on me," she said.
"She was my girlfriend killed in a murder suicide by her stalker."
"That is f**ked up."
"Then I was drugged into thinking a murderer was her so I would ejaculate sperm to impregnate an assassin who framed me for murder. But she used the sperm of a warden who was enabling my abuse in prison instead."
She stepped off the ledge.
"Why haven't you told me any of this?" she asked. "We've been together for three months now!"
"Because I was so focused on what happened in the last three years, I haven't been able to fully bridge the other parts of my life until now."
"Tell me more," she said.
"Only if we go inside," he said.
She sighed. "We're even now."
They took the elevator down.
"I nearly ended up buried alive once," Reid said.
"You're kidding," she said.
"That was after he hooked me on narcotics while torturing me for three days."
"I'm amazed you aren't more f**ked up Spencer,"
Counselors appeared with blankets and Iris let herself be covered. She looked back at him and Reid nodded. They refused to let each other down.