While some of the guys were in the yard, Luis told Reid about how Frazier wanted Luis to ensure the safety of his drugs to move through the prison. It pissed Reid off that they were doing this to a kid.
Alvez joined the team in the field after his talk with Shaw, he only told Hotch where he had been but Morgan knew what he did.
Morgan walked up to him, he reached his hand out to lock their hands together and pulled him in for the bro hug.
"Thanks man," Morgan said as he patted Alvez's back.
Alvez nodded.
He turned to the rest of the team,
"What do you got so far?"
Phoebe went to visit Reid to tell them what she had been able to do. She had his case moved to Alexandria federal court which meant Reid might go before a jury as early as next month.
Her good news came with some bad news too…She couldn't get Reid into protective custody.
"Something's blocking the transfer. The B.O.P. has absolute authority over where an inmate in their custody is being housed and anything I recommend is simply that, a recommendation." She informed him.
Her demeanor then changed a little, "Luke called on my way here. He told me you should talk to your friend Shaw, the other F.B.I. agent in here, he says to stick close to him."
Reid squinted his eyes, his mouth slightly open, "Luke told you that?"
Phoebe nodded.
"He was here?" Reid asked, raising his eyebrows, confused by that.
"Yes," Phoebe told him, thinking he just didn't remember when he had come by.
Reid shook his head knowing what she was thinking, "He didn't see me. He visited Shaw."
Phoebe nodded but she was a little confused. She let it go.
"Okay. I want to go over some strategy with you." She told him.
Reid nodded and they began discussing preparations for his trial.
After meeting with Phoebe, Reid told Shaw of his plan to give his cell to Luis since his "new best friends" couldn't touch him thanks to Alvez's threat to Shaw. When Reid told him that, it pissed Shaw off. Reid didn't quite understand. He knew Shaw had been out of the F.B.I. game for a long time but does prison really change a person that much?
A couple of days later, Reid and Luis were working in the laundry room minding their own business.
All of a sudden, the two guys who had attacked Reid came in and grabbed Luis by his hair.
The bigger one grabbed Reid as he started to step towards Luis, screaming at the guys to stop.
The smaller one pulled out a shank, "Nah. No more orders from you, little man. Maybe we can't get to you. But we can get to your friend."
"Let him go!" Reid screamed as the man restrained him. He jumped, he didn't attempt to move his arms, he used all of his lower body strength but he couldn't break free from this man's grasp on him.
"Here's lesson number one." The smaller prisoner still holding Luis's hair continued. "I know Shaw got your back but I'm in charge."
Reid stopped fighting the bigger man at those words, his breathing heavy as he watched a terrified Luis in pain with the roots of his hair being pulled aggressively as the man spoke.
"In two weeks, my shipments coming through and you're gonna make sure it gets to me safely. Is that clear?" He asked him.
"Spencer…" Luis cried out in desperation.
The man who had hold of Luis pulled Luis closer to him, placing the shank by his neck and holding him by his neck now.
"Is that clear?" The man threatened.
Reid looked quickly at Luis, "Yes. It's clear. It's clear." Reid hoped that saved Luis's life.
But the man who had hold of Luis kept going, "Lesson number two. Never ever mess with a man's stash on the inside. When you do…"
Reid fought and fought the bigger man to no avail as he watched the man slashed Luis's throat.
"People get hurt." He finished.
Once it had been slashed, the bigger man let go of Reid.
"Spencer." Luis tried to say as he choked on his own blood.
Reid ran to his side, "Luis!" He grabbed a towel near him as the young man laid on the floor, bleeding out.
He placed the towel over the deep wound, trying to stop it from all rushing out. He could save him if he kept the pressure on this and the bleeding slowed a little with the towel.
"It's okay. It's okay." Reid told him.
He placed his hands on Luis's face.
"Guard!" Reid yelled, "Help!" He yelled again.
"Help!" He screamed louder but Luis was bleeding out in front of him. He couldn't move to go get help or he'd die sooner but no one was coming.
He watched as Luis choked out from his own blood and the light drained from his eyes. Reid shut Luis's eyes for him when his body laid, lifeless. Reid threw the towel down, whatever guard he found would make him clean this up.
He locked his jaw as he walked out to find Officer Wilkins nearing the scene. He should have known.
"There a problem?" Wilkins asked.
Reid shook his head, "Is there?" He couldn't believe he was snapping at a guard but after watching the only friend, a young kid be killed in prison because he had protection, he didn't care.
His face grew stone cold. He would do whatever he had to, to survive in here but he couldn't become them.
He walked all the way back to his cell as he left Officer Wilkins to clean up the mess he clearly helped create.
Hotch, Prentiss, Alvez, and J.J. had all taken turns to see Reid.
Morgan couldn't visit before now as he had been needed for a case the time he was scheduled for. It was two weeks after Luis was killed.
"Hey, Reid." Morgan greeted.
Reid nodded, he didn't offer a pleasantry. He looked down as he took his seat across from him.
Morgan had never seen the kid like this and to see him locked up…it was hard, to say the least.
"Kid?" Morgan asked, leaning down to try to look up at him.
Reid shook his head, "Sorry. Morgan. I watched a friend die in here."
"Do you mean he was killed in here?"
Reid nodded. He just looked down, stricken with grief for the young man he barely knew.
"What can I do?" Morgan asked.
Reid shrugged, "I can't stay here. I'm glad you're here, Morgan. How's Rossi?"
Morgan looked at the young man confused.
"He couldn't post bail. I know he's frustrated by that." Reid answered.
Morgan nodded in understanding. "I'll tell him, kid."
"Thanks," Reid told him.
"Reid, I know this isn't something you want to think about but it might be a good distraction. Have you thought any more about who could have drugged you? Natalie doesn't think it was Peter Lewis." Morgan told him.
Reid shook his head, "I know. She came to that conclusion with me. But no, I haven't been able to place anyone."
Morgan smiled to himself, knowing Reid had helped Natalie come up with her theory, his genius gears were still grinding.
The next day, Reid rolled over his bed, he marked the next tally on the wall. Thirty-six days since he started the tally which would make it about mid-November.
Not that the holidays were something he celebrated with lots of people but that would be quite depressing to have to be in here for them when the team would likely do something together and his first holiday season with Natalie…he figured she'd be a sucker for it. That made him smile a little but it quickly faded as he got up to get dressed.
Reid's face lit up when he saw Rossi at the booth.
"You haven't slept," Rossi told him.
Reid nodded, "It's been a while."
"I heard about your friend, Luis. I'm really sorry, Spence." Rossi whispered to him.
Reid's eyes swelled up at that.
"Is there anyone you can talk to?" Rossi asked.
"We have group therapy once a week. The counselor wants me to keep a journal, so I am. But I don't really think it's helping." Reid answered.
"How come?"
"Because no one in here is honest. I mean, not a single person in here can admit that they're terrified. If we can't agree on that one basic truth then it doesn't really matter." Reid replied.
Rossi shook his head, "They could just be numb to it all."
"Well, I'm not," Reid said, matter of factly.
"You never will be, because you're a good person. And that's the difference." Rossi told him.
Reid swallowed, "There's a helplessness in here that causes people to do things they would never consider."
****BBBZZZ**** ****BBBZZZZ****** ****BZZZZ****
"It's a lockdown! Return to your cells now!" One of the guards ordered.
Reid stood up, Rossi with him. "I'll come back, okay?"
Reid nodded. "Okay. Bye."
Reid and the other inmates were escorted back to their cells.
Reid learned from Shaw that the guards were shutting down some drugs entering the prison. He told Shaw he couldn't move the drugs. Shaw became extremely frustrated but he didn't let Reid know, exactly. He only warned him.
Reid and Shaw were playing chess. Reid had learned Shaw was the one pushing drugs, Frazier was his cover. Shaw was pretending to protect him while calling all the shots. Shaw had lied about knowing a guy who paid Reid a visit in the laundry room, Malcolm. Reid told Shaw he wouldn't move the drugs as they played the game of chess. He wasn't going to be Shaw's puppet anymore.
After Reid told him all of this, Shaw nodded his head as Reid stared him down,
"What are you looking at?"
Reid leaned in close, "I'm looking at a fisherman who cannot swim."
Shaw bobbed his head up and down, "hmm." He moved a piece on the board to endanger Reid's king, "Check."
Reid had enough, he couldn't get himself killed. So in a moment of desperation, something he would have never done before, he replaced the drugs he was supposed to push with chemicals he mixed together from the laundry room.
Rossi's words about him being a good person, echoing in his mind. He didn't believe that right now. Considering when one of these guys took his concoction, it might kill them. He didn't want to hurt them…well, he did after what they did to Luis.
Later, Reid was pushing the laundry cart back to the laundry room. He found Malcolm lying on the floor, blood coming out of his nose and mouth. He coughed and coughed. He could hardly breathe.
"Malcolm! You okay?" Reid ran over to him. He grabbed him, not sure what he could do.
"They made me try it," Malcolm told him.
Officer Wilkins walked in, "What'd do you do?"
"I found him like this!" Reid yelled.
Wilkins got on the radio, "We need a gurney in the laundry, now."
"Come on, man. Come on. Come on." Reid looked at Malcolm then to Wilkins who looked down, trying to show some level of sympathy to him. While he was a jerk, he didn't want to watch someone die. But he was really skeptical of Reid.
Wilkins walked Reid back to his cell, "So you just found him like that?"
Reid nodded, "What happened?"
"Bad batch." Officer Wilkins replied.
Reid's mouth fell open, he felt so much guilt. He had just hurt that man who didn't do anything to him. They might have been in prison but he didn't know what for and them being in prison didn't change how Reid cared about people.
"Wilkins!" Shaw yelled from the next cell over.
Wilkins walked over to find Shaw in the same state as Malcolm.
"All messed up, man!"
"Medic to cell block - C." Wilkins radioed in.
Another inmate yelled for a medic.
All Reid could hear was the coughing, gasping, the desperation for air all of the inmates who had taken the drugs felt which was the majority of them on his cell block.
Reid ran his hands through his hair, he paced around his cell, he couldn't believe what he had done. He sat down. Mouth open, shaking his head as guard after guard ran and yelled for medics to come.
"Perfect," Cat told Officer Wilkins as he stood outside her solitary confinement window.
Wilkins rolled his eyes, "What's your deal with him anyway? He has lots of visitors, I'm keeping letters from him, and the guy is a FED. I don't like them either but that can't be it."
"You're not in a position to ask questions. But he is the reason I'm in prison so he deserves it and he deserves to know he is just as capable of hurting people, like me." Cat snapped back.
Wilkins sighed at that response.
"Can you get a message to someone for me?" Cat asked.
"Do I have a choice?"
Cat smirked, although Wilkins couldn't see her.
"Lindsey Vaughn. She will be a few doors down from Spencer's apartment. Tell her, it's time to tell Carol Atkins. She will understand." Cat insisted.
"Alright." Wilkins reluctantly agreed.