A/N: Hello again, everyone!
A shout-out to ahowell1993, Kelly, Amy, Susan, Martha, Betty, and Skylar for reviewing Chapter 41!
Please do enjoy and apologies for any mistakes!
And my apologies for the use of language in this chapter. Again.
Also, I would like to credit ahowell1993 for helping me with this chapter as well as the previous chapters.
As you all know, February 19th, 2020, was official the end of Criminal Minds. A show I watched for many years. As I am incredibly sad the show's over, I had the time of my life watching all these characters, the stories, the unsubs and everything else about this show. Sure, they all say, "All good things must come to an end" or "Every ending is a new beginning," but Criminal Minds will forever remain in the hearts and souls of the fans, the cast, the crew.
WHEELS UP FOREVER!
2005 - INFINITY AND BEYOND!
AND...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
"Élise, Reid," Alvez said as he, Garcia, Simmons, and Tara gathered and hanged in their family room with Chinese takeout and beers. "Thank you both so much for hosting this."
"Yeah, I just can't get over how nice this place is."
"I guess something good came out from the ordeal with Griffin," Élise said as she wobbles into the family room with home cook stir fry before she lets out a groan.
"Élise," Reid rushes over to his pregnant wife's side. "Be careful, okay. You're still carrying my little pineapples."
"Pineapples?" Simmons laughed.
"Yeah. The twins are the size of a pineapple now."
Tara said, "Looks like you're about to give birth any second now."
"I know," Élise said as Reid guided her into a comfy chair. "I feel as if I just had bowling balls. So, where's everyone else?"
"Rossi can't make it tonight, but JJ just texted to say that she and Emily are on their way over right now."
"I have an announcement to make," Garcia said before she continued. "I received an opportunity from a private research group that's expanding their stratagem to include combating global environmental change. And…it's in Silicon Valley.
"Really? That's great." Élise exclaimed. "You'll be doing the same kind of work you do at the BAU."
"I know, but…I don't want to go." Garcia sadly replies. "I mean…this is my home. Not this gorgeous palace but…"
"Family's forever." Alvez said.
Simmons added, "We're linked together."
Élise raises her glass of iced water with lemon and lime. "Amen to that. Take this opportunity to explore, Lady G."
Reid knew Rossi would still be working on the Chameleon case, so he went to the place he knew Rossi would go to.
"I'd figure you'd be here," Reid said.
And that place was the Bunker.
The place Rossi showed Reid where it all began after the unfortunate passing of Jason Gideon.
"Back to where it all began."
As Reid looked around and saw pictures and other evidence of Everett "The Chameleon" Lynch around the room and on the wall,
"It's been a year since what happened with Lynch and before I couldn't get anything, so I came here. I have Gideon's voice in my head," Rossi continued. "And he's telling me to 'Think outside the box and I'm the unsub.' And I did. The piece we've been missing: Lynch's father. 'Who's my daddy?'"
Reid snickered. "Roberta has her own agenda against Lynch: to avenge Grace's death and doesn't want anyone getting in her way, and that includes us. It's actually more common for mothers to be killers as fathers."
"These theories…they…" Rossi was interrupted when.
"Dave," Reid began to speak up. "I completely understand your personal stake in this, but you and Gideon started something pretty good down here, and I think it's time that you let that legacy do what it's always done best: work together as a team."
"Okay. And just to let you, I pray to God Krystall won't kill me for probably forgetting my wedding anniversary."
"I know I won't ever forget mine." Reid nodded.
As Élise was reading to Anastasia in her bed, about to take a nap, "Peter Rabbit was so tired that he flopped down on the nice, soft sand "on the floor of the rabbit hole, and he shut his eyes. His mother was busy cooking."
"What was she cooking?" Anastasia asked.
"Probably salad." Élise joked before giggling.
Anastasia giggled as well, "Rabbits don't eat salad."
Élise was about to continue when her cell phone rang, "Hold on one second, babe." Answering,
"Hello?"
"Hey, you."
"Hey." Élise gave the phone to Anastasia. "Want to talk to daddy?"
"Hey, daddy," Anastasia said.
Reid was glad to hear from Élise and Anastasia. He needed to after seeing Roberta in the interrogation room with Tara and JJ. "Hey, angel. How are you?"
"We're good; we're about to take a nap."
"Okay, that's good. I'm about to go to Reno; we have a new lead on Lynch. I'll bring you back some chicken fried lobster and perhaps something from Binion's."
"You know how to treat us well." Élise smiled. "Just be careful, okay?"
"I'll do my best. I love you all."
"Same here."
"Bye, daddy!" Anastasia cried.
"Bye."
After hopping on the next flight to Reno and had a sit-down with Orlando Gaines, Reid and Rossi got a call about a possible lead to Lynch's biological father.
Only they got a big surprise.
"Roberta's handiwork." Rossi declared before he stepped outside to take a phone call.
The corpus of Everett Lynch's biological father, Delvin Weaver.
As Reid observed the body,
"At least 14 gunshot wounds—meaning Roberta reloaded and 47 stab wounds following that."
"Everett took away Grace, so Roberta took away his father." JJ figured. "And if Lynch finds out, it'll not only confirm his own father's violent past and his own justification of killing Grace: a terrible memory he might suppress his and make his urges feel like his father."
"He's even proving himself by fostering a surrogate for Grace," Reid added.
"We have a problem," Rossi said as he asked everyone else to join in. "Lynch wants to meet me; he now knows his father's death."
"You know," Reid thinks. "He could be at a vulnerable state of mind and sees Rossi as a surrogate father. Overcome the past to be a better man."
"You're giving him too much human emotion, Spence." JJ disagree.
As Reid's fighting his defense, "Maybe not his vulnerability but at least let's see what his vulnerability is. Talk to him."
Rossi declared, "Let's do it."
Reid and JJ met up with FBI SWAT officers at the house where Roberta would spend his teenage years. Reid offered to talk to Roberta, who insisted that she let Olivia—the daughter of the woman Lynch had killed—go and surrender.
As Reid began to approach the house with some of the FBI SWAT officers,
"Spence!" JJ cries out for him.
BOOM!
A huge explosion.
"Spence!" JJ's fainted voice calls out for him after his head hit against the stone concrete.
"What…?" Reid
"Spence, are you okay?" JJ asked again.
As Reid rubs his head, "Hopefully. Ouch." Finally asking, "What happened?"
"Six FBI SWAT officers have been confirmed dead so far, according to Prentiss."
"And Lynch?"
"He was said to be among the casualties."
Reid was confused, "What? T-that doesn't make any sense."
"Spence…"
"It doesn't, JJ." Reid tries to compartmentalize the situation. "It…"
JJ suggested. "Perhaps going home and seeing your girls and twins will help ease it all, okay?"
"Spencer, are you okay?" Élise worryingly asked as Reid answered the phone after the first ring. "I heard there was a bombing."
"I'm okay. My head still hurts a bit and we're on our way home."
Élise let out a sigh of relief. "Oh my…I'll be waiting up for you, okay? I just tucked in Anastasia."
"Of course, honey. I love you both."
"And we love you."
Even on the plane ride and on his way home, the entire situation was not making any else to Reid. As he got home and locked in the security code, he immediately sets his bags and keys to the side. Suddenly his head was hurting him again,
"I don't understand." Reid began talking to himself as he walks into the living room.
"Hey, sweet brain." Élise happily greets her husband.
"It doesn't make sense to me." Reid unintendedly ignores Élise.
"Babe, are you sure you're okay after the bombing?" Élise sounded concerned.
"I don't understand how that kind of personality can choose to blow itself up."
Élise was now starting to get nervous. "Sweetheart, your nose…"
"If Roberta gave in to him—and if he took the gun away…If he could get to a tunnel…Lynch." Reid declared, "He's still alive."
Before passing out.
"SPENCER!"
As Reid walks into the bullpen, as if it was a typical day at work, "What the…?"
"Morgan, your friend's resort better be as nice as you say it is…"
"Elle?"
"Elle, 2 weeks of pure heaven… I am not answering my cell phone…Pretty boy…"
"Morgan…"
"Hey, don't knock family…I'm gonna get nothing but for the next 336 hours…."
"Hotch…"
"…You all deserve a break. Seriously, don't call…"
"Gideon?"
It was all starting to get too much for him, so he rushes over to Garcia's office.
"Garcia. Something's wrong. I hit my head and now…" He tries to tell her before she turned around and,
"Yes, Spencer?"
Only it wasn't Garcia; instead it was,
"Section Chief Strauss." Reid's eyes widen and his jaw slightly dropped. "You're dead." Realizing, "Am I dead as well?"
Strauss chuckled, "No, but not necessarily. You have intracranial hemorrhaging."
"My brain is shutting down?" Reid knew what that was.
"Parts of it are. Parts of it are struggling to survive. You're going on a journey and what you see is entirely up to you."
"What?" Before Reid knew, he was now standing in a corner where he soon encounters.
"Damn, man," Reid recognized that voice from anywhere and knew it was,
"George Foyet."
"In the flesh." Foyet presents himself before looking at the wall of fallen agents. "Six agents gone in one boom. You've been through it all, haven't you, doc. Addict. Convict."
"Shut up." Reid ordered Foyet to but kept going.
"Victims. Casualties. It all ends in death. And so will yours, doc." Foyet began to laugh maniacally as Reid stared at the possible picture of himself hanging on the wall of fallen agents.
Élise began to nervously bite down on her fingernails and sooth her belly just as the doctors were tending to Reid. She knew she had to leave Anastasia with Hotch and Jack for the night since she was too scared for Anastasia to see Spencer this way. It would be too much for her small fragile mind. Hearing dashing footsteps behind her,
"Élise?"
It was the team.
"What happened?" Prentiss agreed.
"Spencer passed out when he came home." An anxious Élise replies before she tries to continue. "He just kept saying it didn't make any sense, Everett is still alive and…" Élise stopped; she couldn't continue.
"Élise…" JJ tries to calm down Spencer.
"Lynch is alive?" Rossi asked with raised concern.
"Yes." Élise bluntly said. "Reid figured out that Lynch survived the bombing by getting out through a tunnel after killing Roberta."
"Oh, god…" Garcia covered her mouth.
"Oh my…" Élise starts massaging the back of her neck. "Did Reid go to the hospital after the bombing?"
"Élise…"
"SOMEBODY BETTER GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS REAL QUICK!" She shrieked.
"We thought he did, but…"
"You thought he did? You thought he did." Élise whispers before screeching. "YOU DIDN'T GET HIM TO THE HOSPITAL THE YOTCOSECOND AFTER THAT FUCKING BOMBING THAT COULD HAVE TAKEN HIS LIFE?!"
"You're causing a scene." Alvez tries to calm her down.
Élise continued, "I DON'T GIVE A TWO SHITS AND A FUCK ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!" She lets out a groan before,
"Dr. Bastien-Reid," Dr. Kiyomura approached her and the team. "We got Dr. Reid stabilized in the CCU and his heart is doing well."
Élise let out a sigh of relief, "Hallelujah."
"You know, getting him here right away reduces his chance of needing surgery but in due time we need to see him pull through first."
"Hmm-mm." Élise nods her head before giving the team a quick snarl. "Did you all hear that?"
"He did have a seizure after his MRI, but we gave him anticonvulsants and I'll be prescribing Spencer to take anticonvulsants for about a year while he sees a neurologist every few months for an MRI."
Élise was happy to hear mostly good news. "You keep on doing everything you can for him."
"Of course." Once Dr. Kiyomura waved at the team and was out of ear sight, as Élise tries to calm herself,
"Because of your actions, none of you are seeing Spencer right now. If you want to help me, find the bastard. And God help me as he is my rightful witness, anything happens to Spencer, you all better crawl lower than six feet under." Now her sights set on, "Especially you, Emily Prentiss. You better crawl lower than twelve feet under."
"Élise…"
"Please." Élise stopped them. "I don't want to see or hear from you all right now. Just…please leave us be." She said before wobbling over to Reid's side.
"Let's find Lynch," Prentiss said.
Rossi adds, "And stop this bastard once and for all."
"Not before I change my underwear first," Simmons suggested.
"Same here." Garcia and Alvez simultaneously said.
After Foyet snaps his fingers, Reid finds himself at a different place.
"Good to see you again, Doc."
A very familiar voice said to him.
"Maeve." Reid looked almost teary-eyed. "It's really you."
"It's me."
"You look great," Reid mentioned. "Your hair's blonde."
"I thought it might be time for something new. And you look handsome as always."
Reid immediately began to think about his last moments with Maeve with Diane Turner killed both of them. "I'm sorry I let you die." His voice began to crack and a tear or two fell from his eyes. "Or how I wasn't smart or fast enough to save you."
Maeve took his hands, "Don't be. Let me tell you my deepest, darkest secret? I love nineties rom-drams and rom-coms. The cheesier the better." Giggling. "And my favorite one was about this angel who gave up his immortality because he fell in love with a human. But they only had one day together before she was killed. I always wondered why that one stuck with me. So don't be sorry or have any regrets."
"I don't," Reid admits. "At least not anymore."
"Let me tell you something since you're still holding onto so much trauma at crossroads right now. And you really need to hear it. The world is a good place. And it's even better with you in it. Can I take you somewhere?"
"Yeah."
"Honey, I know you want to see daddy right now," Élise softly said to Anastasia as she was on the phone with her. "But I promise that you'll see him; just not right now, okay? Be good for Aaron and Jack, okay? Love you." She got off the phone just as Diana walked in with a nurse assistant,
"Diana." Élise hugs her mother-in-law. "So glad you can make it."
"It's always great to see you too." Diana smiled. "How are my grandbabies doing in that belly of yours?"
"They're great and calm, better than I am." Élise strokes her belly. "Diana. Spencer fell and he hit his head really hard, and he's not conscious."
"Well, let's wake him up." Diana lightly suggested. "Let's see him."
"No, wait." Élise tries to stop her,
Diana walks pass her and approaches to his bedside, "He'll listen to me. Spencer." Diana tries to walk him up before realizing, "It's not him. Spencer. Spencer. Spencer?" Finally breaking down, "Oh, my baby. Oh, my baby. Oh, please."
"He's going to wake up, Diana." Élise starts to embrace Diana. "He's going to wake up. He has to."
Unknown cemetery…
"You seemed to have made peace," Maeve said as she and Reid wondered around.
"Yeah. I've made peace with much that has happened in my life and to try and move to pass it," Reid agrees before thinking. "What if I don't wake up?"
"What do you mean?"
"If I don't wake up, I'll be letting my mother die. My wife Élise down. My little girl Anastasia. My unborn twins. Everyone." Reid confesses as he sat down at a nearby bench.
"So much has happened to you." Maeve comforts him as she joins him. "Your father's physical absence, your mother's psychological one, me. It can get overwhelming where you need to stop seeking and gaining approval by everyone."
"I know."
"Let's take your mind off that. Tell me what you love."
Reid starts listing them. "I love magic and ghost stories."
"Fiddling with your pen like me." Maeve giggled, which made Reid giggle. "What else?"
"Jell-O. Kumquats. Uh, teaching, learning, books, hope. Making connections Making-Making a difference. My mother. Anastasia. Élise. My unborn twins. You. I love you."
"See? That's a lot of love."
"When Élise and I were reading Winnie the Pooh to Anastasia and the twins, we came across a quote, 'Sometimes the smallest things take the most room in your heart.'"
"Exactly. Remember when we argued about the world's greatest poet?"
"We argued for four hours," Reid remembers. "Your favorite E.E. Cummings?"
"Because whenever you think or you believe or you know, you're a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself."
"To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."
"Exactly." Maeve hugs him. Smiling at him, "Don't ever stop being you. Stand strong and be strong. I'll be watching you. And you better take good care of your girls and twins."
"I remember this one time when he was little." Diana reminisces a memory for Élise. "We go to the park and just look at the clouds; cumuliform heaps are his favorite."
"Perhaps we should do that," Élise suggested.
"And Spencer's eyes. Brown and gold on the outside and the inside."
"I hear you." Reid hazily said.
"Baby." Diana pets his son's head.
"Forgot how much I loved those clouds, Mom," Reid replies. "You helped me remember."
"Baby!" Élise gently hugs Reid. "You're awake. And if you want, we can watch clouds together."
"Am I alive, or is this heaven?"
"Sweetie, you are very much alive." Diana teary said.
"Daddy!" Anastasia rushes into Reid's bedside with Jack and Hotch behind her.
"Hi, baby!" He accepts her hug after Élise picks up Anastasia and lightly places her on his lap.
"Are you okay?"
Smiling with a tear falling down, "I am now."
Élise was just coming back from the cafeteria with some Jell-O for everybody when she runs into,
"Hey, Hotch."
Who was just coming out of the bathroom.
"Hey. How've you been?"
"Trying to keep it together, despite my urge to wanting to kill the team."
"Why, what happened?"
Élise pouts her lips. "Well, let's see, instead of staying in Reno for observation, they just took him straight on home, where I collapsed in front of me."
"Knowing me, I would have made sure he stayed in Reno. Perhaps I should have a talk with the team."
"Don't worry, Hotch. I took care of them," Élise assured him. "And let me tell you, had any happened to him…" Whispering to him. "Perhaps I shouldn't tell you since you were a federal prosecutor."
Hotch chuckles since she knew what she meant.
