Chapter Sixteen: Proud, but of Whom?

"Jealousy is bred in doubts. When those doubts change into certainties, then the passion either ceases or turns absolute madness." -François de la Rochefoucauld


Spencer stepped inside the interrogation room, taking a seat with his gaze fixed steadily on Elana. He'd offered to go in, and Hotch had let him. Reid appreciated the faith. If he was going to be fired, he wanted to go out with a successful case.

"Eliza confessed to the stalking. And my attempted murder," Reid started.

Much to her credit, Elana didn't react with surprise. She grinned and gave a nod. "Are you going to uncuff me now? I'd like to go see my William."

Reid shook his head, just looking the older woman in the eye. Her smile dropped and she sighed in annoyance. With her free hand, Elana brushed the dust from the table. Nobody spoke for a moment, Spencer watching her and the woman just staring at her wedding ring.

"There's just… one mistake that you made, Elana," Reid finally continued.

"Mrs. Reid," the mother corrected under her breath. "And I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. I'm innocent."

The young doctor gave her a disbelieving look and her face ticked in annoyance. "The stalker? The stalker started signing her emails with R. It doesn't make any sense for Eliza to do that, now does it?"

At the small comment, Elana's face twitched. Reid proceeded to lay printouts of the emails out on the table. With Garcia's help, they printed one of the first ones with the R. The woman's gaze scanned over the pictures with an unimpressed look before she spotted the edited email. Her gaze hesitated on it.

"That's wrong," Elana commented, tapping on the paper. Her finger covered up the R and she relaxed slightly. "Eliza started signing R later on."

Reid suppressed a smile. "No, these are printed straight up from emails. Eliza admitted she wrote that. So... definitely not wrong."

The older woman pursed her lips, leg bouncing up and down. "No. That's wrong. She must have not noticed the mistake. This…" Elana took a deep breath. "...this is wrong. It's not supposed to be signed."

"I think it is."

"It's not!"

The doctor picked up the paper and read it over. When he finished it, he looked over at the woman and shrugged. "Looks accurate to me. And Eliza admitted she did it so who am I to argue?"

Elana's fists clenched and she looked away from Reid and the paper. Her leg continued to bounce in agitation. As Spencer got to his feet, she snapped. "Stop it! Are you going to fix it?" Reid shook his head, feigning a confused look. "I didn't start signing them until we were married! Fix it!" she screamed.

Spencer took a seat now that he had done it. "You wrote them?"

"Yes! I wrote them! William is mine!"

Reid paused his recording and glanced at the mirror where his team most likely waited. Elana finally seemed to realize the gravity of her words and swallowed hard, shaking her head. As Spencer walked to the door, her mutterings turned into screams.

"How dare you? Don't ruin my family! Don't ruin us! Stop it!"

The doctor shut the door.


"Spencer?" William began, hesitating to reach out to Reid.

A few hours had passed since they got Elana's confession. Eliza and Elana were going to jail. The young doctor predicated around five years for Eliza and twenty years to life for Elana. Judges seemed very keen on arresting people when they attacked federal agents. Elana seemed to have forgotten to get rid of the evidence. She had hidden the recordings that caught her contaminating the coffee in her room. William had brought them in.

Spencer and the rest of the team were just scheduled to leave in about an hour, Hotch and Reid had decided to gather everything from the sheriff's department. Reid had really not wanted to run into his dad. But here he was. "What?"

"I wanted to apologize, you know… for everything."

The young doctor looked over at his dad. His eyes glimmered with emotions. "I can't forgive you for everything..."

William winced but nodded. "I know."

"...but I can forgive you for this. I get why you couldn't talk to me now."

His father brightened up at this, offering him a small smile. "That's all I ask, Spencer. I need to say something else, though. It will only take a moment," When Spencer nodded, he continued. "I'm proud of what you've become."

This was supposed to be when Reid felt relief wash over him. Where he was supposed to laugh and feel great that his dad was proud of him. But he couldn't. Reid had wanted William to be proud, but William had no idea what Reid had to go through. William didn't know him well enough to be proud.

Spencer gave William a small smile. "Thanks," Then he turned away, catching up with Hotch.

The unit chief glanced at Reid, having watched the interaction with William. "Are you okay?" he asked as they got into the car. In the safety of the vehicle, both Reid and Hotch were able to show how they really felt. The case was over, so Hotch didn't need to be focused and serious. He could finally just… breathe.

"He told me he was proud, Hotch. Why can't I care?"

Hotch kept the car off for a moment, turning to look at Spencer. He put a hand on the younger agent's shoulder. "William may know what you are. An agent, a good one too. But he doesn't know who."

The young man fought back his tears, looking in the unit chief's eyes. "Who am I?" A failure?

"You're one of the bravest people I know. You've been through so much and somehow… somehow you still manage to wake up every day and save lives. Reid, you are a member of the BAU and you've got every one of us on your side. You are someone to be proud of. And we are."

Reid's tears slipped down his face and he smiled. Sitting up, he wrapped his arms around Hotch, he hugged him back.

"Thank you." The young doctor whispered.


"Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny." -Steve M


A/N: There will be one more chapter, an epilogue, but other than that, this story is over! I really hope you enjoyed it! If you want anything cleared up or touched up on, just leave a review and I will probably explain it in the Epilogue. This includes anything you want to see! The Epilogue should be a longer chapter, to make up for this one. Thanks so much for reading!