Oh god so here we are at the anthrax episode... so here's the thing...
This was supposed to be much shorter than it is. I wanted to show Reid struggling throughout the episode, but then also show the aftermath that we didn't get. Yet... this is almost 5000 words and its mostly just what we saw in the ep😂

I just couldn't find a good place to make this two parts, so enjoy this ridiculously long chapter and I'll be working on a second part showing recovery now 😂

S4 E24

Reid entered the lab with caution. It didn't look like anyone was in the house, but he still got a sinking feeling as he walked in the room. The walls were white and there were papers everywhere.

Blood. There was blood on the floor. Reid followed the trail, finding the body of Nichols.

"Shit." He said, examining the wound on his head. As Reid began to turn around, his heart skipped a beat.

There was white powder spilled on the floor.

"Fuck." Reid whispered to himself, realizing his mistake.

"Reid? Reid?" He heard Morgan calling his name from outside.

Morgan! If he came in here, he could get infected!

Reid sprinted to the door, quickly shutting and locking it before Morgan could step inside.

"Reid!"

"Morgan, get- get back! Get back! Get out of here!"

"What are you doing?!" The man's face was filled with fear. "What's wrong?" He pulled on the door handle, but Reid was thankful that he'd locked it.

"No, don't! Believe me, get back!"

"What's wrong?!"
Reid looked down, double bolting the door, making sure that Morgan wouldn't be able to kick his way through.

"Reid, open the door!"

He frantically sealed all of the locks, tucking his hair behind his ear frantically. His heart was pounding in his chest with anxiety. They couldn't be down two team members. Derek couldn't get infected because of his dumb mistake.

"I'm sorry." Reid said, before glancing back at the white powder spilled on the floor.

Morgan was clearly upset, his eyes filling with unshed tears. But Reid couldn't let him in. For once, he had to do the protecting, he needed to make sure Morgan stayed safe. He needed to make sure that Morgan got out of this alive.

"I'm calling Hotch, we're gunna get a team and an ambulance and we're gunna get you out of there. You're gunna be okay." Morgan said, pulling out his phone and quickly dialing Hotch. He stepped away reluctantly, sadly leaving Reid for a moment.

Reid turned around, letting out a sigh of relief. At least he'd prevented Morgan from making the same mistake. Slowly, Reid began wandering around the lab. As long as he was in here, he may as well make himself useful.

He started looking through the lab notes which had been left, scattered, on one of the desks. Quickly scanning through each document, he started compiling what information would be helpful in catching the unsub.

He was interrupted when his phone began ringing. Reid grabbed it, answering without looking at the caller ID.

"Yeah."
"Reid, they're on their way, Hotch is coming and they're sending hazmat teams over. Don't worry, you're gunna be alright."
"Thanks," he said, unconvinced, still scanning through the documents, "you know, it looks like Nichols has been dead at least two or three days, and there are two distinct handwriting patterns in these notes."
"What are you saying?"
"Nichols isn't causing these attacks, he's been dead for all of them. He had a partner. His partner is the unsub."

"Shit. Okay, let me call Garcia and tell her to update the team and see what she can find."
"Sounds good."
"Reid. Hang in there."

Reid bit his lip, shutting his eyes for a moment. He was already starting to feel the effects of the anthrax on his lungs. If it was escalating this quickly, there was a good chance he wasn't getting out of this one.

"Thanks Morgan." He said, hanging up the phone. There was no time to dwell on this though, he needed to help as much as he could before his body started to shut down. If they could catch the unsub before the next attack… well that would be enough for him, he thought.

Reid ran around the lab, reading all of the possible reports, observing every inch of the lab, looking through all their procedures. He needed to keep busy, and he had to work fast. When he heard sirens approaching, Reid stopped, taking a moment to call Hotch.

As he began dialing the man's number, he realized that he was standing outside of the window with Morgan and Whitworth. The two of them both looked incredibly worried. Reid sighed, he didn't want them to focus on him right now, they couldn't afford that. He'd already began accepting his fate, he hoped they would too.

A stab of guilt went through his stomach. This was all his fault anyways. If he hadn't wandered into the unknown area of the house, he wouldn't be stuck in this situation. At least he'd been able to prevent Morgan from making the same mistake.

Hotch answered the phone, staring at him from outside.

"Reid."
"Hotch, I really messed up this time." He felt a ball of shame in his stomach. Why did he keep making all of these stupid mistakes? Hotch would probably have a talk about how disappointed in him he was if he weren't slowly dying in here.
"Reid, we need to get you to the hospital."

"No," he quickly replied, "I'm staying right here."

"No, you're not, Reid!" Morgan yelled into Hotch's phone.

"I'm already exposed. It's not gunna do me any good to stop working the case." He said, turning around to go look in a different corner of the lab.

"He's already infected. Now if Nichols created the strain, he may have also created the cure" Whitworth remarked.

"My best chance is to stay here, see if there's a cure, and try to figure out who killed Dr. Nichols." He began frantically glancing around the lab, trying to see if there was anything obvious that he might've missed. Anything that would lead him to the partner or the cure.

"Come on Hotch, say something to him." He heard Morgan quietly plead over the phone. There was a long pause before the man replied.

"He's right. His best chance is inside. We're gunna get a suit and a mask into you right away"

"Don't bother" Reid interrupted, "it's not gunna do me any good, I'm already infected." Reid quickly hung up the phone, grabbing a data sheet that he hadn't seen yet.

Reid bounced around, scanning documents and books for anything of interest. It wasn't long though before Hotch called him again.

He quickly flipped open his phone, "Yeah?"
"Reid, what do you see in there?"
"Uh I see cages filled with dead animals, I see signs of a struggle. Probably before Dr. Nichols was murdered. Equipment's missing. There's a large desk. Clutter all over the surface. But in the corner-" he stated, quickly sprinting to the corner area, "-there's a smaller desk. It's organized, functional."

Reid panted slightly at the effort. His lungs were definitely beginning to struggle, it was becoming harder to catch his breath. He shook his head; he couldn't worry about that right now.

"Two different workspaces?" Morgan asked.

"Two different sets of handwriting," Reid observed, flipping through a set of papers, "I'm looking at instructions on how to boil lab-grade broth, sterilize lab equipment, and transfer spores."

"Nichols would know all that" Whitworth commented.

"He has a partner, maybe even a protégé" Reid stated with certainty, looking at the obviously different handwriting patterns in each notebook. "Go back to the BAU, try to figure out who his partner is." Reid suggested, trying to get them away from here.

They'd be no help standing outside, worrying over him. Hopefully this way they could prevent the last attack, even if they couldn't save him.

"Hotch, why don't you go? I'll stay here with Reid" Morgan said.

The cell clicked off as Hotch supposedly rushed away. Reid tucked away his phone once more, running around the lab to piece together as much of the puzzle as he could before his time ran out.

After a while, he ended up taking a seat, glancing out the window at the team who was setting up to come inside the lab with him. His lungs were already feeling heavy, and a tickle in his throat was making itself know.

He wished he could call his mom to say goodbye.

Reid knew it would be breaking protocol, and he couldn't risk putting the whole country into a nationwide panic just so that he got to speak to his mom one last time, but a part of him was itching to do so anyways.

She'd need to hear his voice; she'd be so confused when they told her that he'd…

Reid felt tears begin to build. He needed to do something.

"Garcia." He thought aloud, quickly bringing out his phone and dialing her number.

"Hey Reid" a sad sounding Garcia answered.

"'Reid', wow, no, uh… no witty Garcia greeting for me?"
"Oh, I can't be my sparkly self when you are where you are."

Reid swallowed a lump in his throat, beginning to get a little emotional as the situation was hitting him. He knew he wasn't getting out of this, but now it was really starting to feel real.

"Uh, Garcia," he awkwardly started, "do you think you could do something for me?"

"Anything."

"I, uh… I know I can't call my mom without, uh…" he cleared his throat as the emotion became known in his voice, "without alerting everyone at her hospital."

He heard a sad gasp on the other end. "What do you need?" Garcia asked, clearly distressed.
"I, uh… I need you to record a message for her… in case anything happens to me."

"Oh, huh, nothing's gunna happen to you, you're gunna… brilliantly find out who did this and we're gunna treat the strain." Garcia said, feigning happiness in her voice. He could tell that even she didn't believe what she was saying.

"I hope you're right." He said, a small smile appearing on his face at her optimism. "But if you're not, I just… I really wanna make sure that she hears my voice."
There was a pause as Garcia absorbed what he'd said. Reid could feel the tears returning to his eyes once again. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. He wasn't supposed to die before his mom, and certainly not from anthrax.

"ok, just give me a second." Reid heard lots of clicking from Garcia's keyboard on the other end of the call as she pulled up a file.

"Are you ready?"
"Ready."
Reid took a deep, shuttering breath. "Hi mom. This is Spencer. I just, um… I just, really want you to know that, I love you, and-" his voice caught in his throat. Reid cleared it, a tear dripping down his face as he started speaking again. "I need you to know that… I spend every day of my life… proud… to be your son."

He wanted to say more. There was so much more that he needed to tell his mom. But he knew that if he kept speaking, he was going to fully breakdown, and he needed his mind in the game. He sniffed, wiping away the stray tears on his face.

"Reid?" Garcia said, asking if he was still there.

Just then, he heard Dr. Kimura on the other side of the door. The team was about to come in. He quickly scrubbed his face of any sign of emotion, taking a shuttering breath.

"I gotta go." He said, quickly hanging up the phone.

Reid set down the clipboard he'd been holding, turning to face Dr. Kimura.

"Dr. Reid."

"You look nice." He said, chuckling at the sight of her wearing the full body hazmat suit.

She smiled, "I haven't been in this outfit for a while."

"How are- how are the patients doing?"

"Let's worry about you."
Reid's eyebrows shot up; he'd been trying to get the attention off of himself after all. His brain started to think of a proper lie to spin up.

"Uh, I actually, I feel fine." He stated quickly. Inside he cringed, that was not a very convincing performance.

Dr. Kimura did not look convinced, but she went along with his lie. "Okay, if you feel any pain, I could give you something."
"No I- I'd rather not take any pain medication."

"We can at least make you feel more comfortable."
Reid's mind instantly went to the thought of Dilauded. Oh, how he craved to have that in his system right now. It would numb the pain in his lungs and his mind…

He quickly snapped back to reality, realizing the addiction was trying to take hold of him.

"I am comfortable, and I don't want to take any narcotics."

"…okay." Dr. Kimura stated, nodding her head in unsaid understanding of his statement. "Tell me how I can help."
Reid swallowed, feeling lots of pain in his throat as he did so. "I think the cure for the strain is in here somewhere."

"Where shall I start, here?"
"Doc- Doctor Nichols is a former military scientist," he began, starting to quickly walk around the room once more, "which means he's most likely secretive and most likely a little paranoid. He would've protected the cure, and probably would've hidden it from his partner. So, look for something innocuous, something you would not suspect."
"Alright."

Reid wiped the sweat off his brow. He was starting to get really hot, and he could feel sweat pouring down his forehead. His phone began to ring so he grabbed it out of his pocket. Reid coughed a little into his hand before answering.

"Hello." He said, voice cracking a little.

"How's it going in there, kid?" It was Morgan.

"I've seen better days." He said, cringing as his throat stung from speaking.

"Well you've got me and Garcia."
"Hey Reid." Garcia said in a light voice.

Reid started to reply, but his voice caught suddenly. He coughed into his hand once more, trying to clear his throat.

"Reid, stick with me." Morgan said, encouraging him. Reid wanted to speak, but he was too afraid that he'd begin coughing again. It was becoming harder to speak and breath, and the tickle in his throat was getting worse. "Listen, Prentiss and Rossi don't think the partner was a coworker, can you tell us anything else about him?"

"I've to- uh…" He struggled, speaking breathily, "I've already been through everything."

"Come on now, kid, I know you're not thinking straight but the Reid I know wouldn't stop looking."

Reid nodded at this, motivating himself to get moving again. His brain was becoming a little fuzzy, swirling from possible fever and lack of oxygen.

"Alright, alright. I see a, uh, framed photograph of Dr. Nichols teaching. I see, uh, a binder w-with syllabi. Course assignments. Going all the way back to the 1970s." His chest was really starting to hurt now, it was like he was breathing through something thick, his lungs felt heavy.
Morgan startled him out of his thoughts, "alright, so he kept a scrapbook of himself as a professor. That tells us that he values himself as an educator."

"A teacher." Reid stated, quickly walking to the other desk. "I saw something earlier, I didn't- um I didn't make the connection to it or to the partner, but he has a study on anthrax." His breaths were becoming more desperate now, he couldn't talk for as long without breathing. It was making it hard to speak. "He has an annotated bibliography, table of contents, it's formatted like a thesis and has writing in the margins in red ink, like the way a teacher grades a paper. Now, Nichols wouldn't have just let anyone in here, but he may have opened his lab for educational purposes, as a teacher."
"So the partner must have appealed to him as a student. Nichols is helping him with his thesis."

"I- I can look up local PhD students" Garcia chimed in, typing immediately beginning on her line.

Reid tried to catch his breath as Morgan spoke again. "Yeah, check the sciences. Biochemistry. Microbiology."

"Cross checking with names of former employees or customers with grievances at the bookstore." There was a pause before a beeping sound came through. "Nothing, my doves."
Reid suddenly began coughing into his arm, trying to muffle the sound. It was taking a lot out of him; he was beginning to feel faint from the lack of oxygen.

But he pushed through, "Listen to this, 'this country is woefully unprepared.' 'every household should have a 2-month supply of cipro.' 'Hospitals are in need of bio-safety level 4 decon wings.'"

"That's verbatim to what we heard from Nichols. The partner's adopted Nichols' views as his own." Morgan commented.

Reid continued, "The chapters are on setting up triage and mobile emergency rooms. I don't think this paper was written by a science student. It's about city preparedness and response."

"So, Garcia, check with students in the social studies- Public policy, urban planning."

"Hot to trot. There's a Chad Brown, School of Public Policy at U of M. Matches a Chad Brown, former employee at the book front." Garcia quickly read.

"That's gotta be him."

"Totally. he's been in the doctoral program on and off for 5 years. Nix on a steady job. Was slapped with a restraining order from his former girlfriend and has been arrested and released twice at protest rallies in DC. I'll tell Hotch." Garcia quickly hung up the phone, leaving just Morgan and Reid on the line.

"Kid, you did real good. Now get the hell out of there."

"Bye." Reid said, hanging up the phone. He coughed a bit more as Dr. Kimura approached him.

"Dr. Reid. You said the cure would be hidden somewhere We wouldn't suspect." She held up an item he hadn't noticed before. "What about Nichols' inhaler?"

His brows furrowed for a moment before realizing that she was probably correct. That was a very inconspicuous place for Nichols to hide it. And his partner would never look there for it.

Reid started to reply, but began coughing instead, unable to form any words. He began slumping over, Dr. Kimura quickly helping him to the ground. She helped him sit on the floor, unbuttoning his shirt slightly so that his airways were clear.

When he finally managed to catch his breath his head was pounding, his throat and chest hurt like hell and he could barely breath.

"We need to get you out of here, now."

Dr. Kimura began helping him stand carefully, him placing a bit of his weight on her shoulder. They walked him outside into the tent that was waiting for him. He'd need to be scrubbed down before they went to the hospital to make sure he didn't have any traces of anthrax on him.

The team started spraying him with a hose. Reid relaxed into the cold water. He didn't realize how hot he was until now. Morgan walked in the other side of the tent, on the phone with someone.

'Probably Hotch.' He thought, coughing a bit more. Morgan hung up, taking a step towards Reid.

"They're checking out Brown's house."
"Go help Hotch." Reid quickly stated in a weak voice.

Morgan stared at him in disbelief. "Hotch has plenty of people helping him."

"He needs you more than I do." Reid said unconvincingly. Truthfully, he didn't want Morgan to leave him, he needed his brother by his side. He was scared. But there wasn't time for that. Preventing a mass attack was more important than Morgan staying with him.
"Reid, I'm gunna see you off to the hospital."
Reid needed to convince him to go. Hotch needed him, the team needed him. So, he said the only thing he could think of. "I'm about to get naked so they can scrub me down. Is that something you really wanna see?"

Morgan's eyes widened in slight horror at the thought, and Reid smirked, knowing his plan worked. The man turned to walk out, "I'll check on you later. Take good care of him, please" he said, addressing the whole team.

Dr. Kimura appeared, handing the inhaler to another team member. "Get this to the lab." She turned to face him. "I hope you're right about this."
Reid nodded in agreement. "So do I."

He began taking off his tie when Dr. Kimura's eyes widened in horror. "Dr. Reid did you cut yourself?"

Reid turned, looking at his hand. A dark skin ulcer was forming where he'd nicked his hand on a rosebush earlier.

No wonder he was coming down so much more quickly than the other victims. Not only did he have exposure to a large amount of the anthrax via his lungs, but it had also entered his body through the cut on his hand.

He turned to look at Dr. Kimura with an equal amount of horror. Their time had just been cut even shorter. His chances of survival were now much slimmer.

The team quickly scrubbed him down, and they gave him some dry scrubs to dress in. He stumbled to the ambulance, EMTs quickly getting him hooked up to monitors and Dr. Kimura began listening to his breathing.

The ambulance quickly took off, making its way to the hospital. Reid began coughing more and more, his chest getting tighter each time.

"How are you feeling Dr. Reid?"

Reid coughed a few more times before answering. "My throat's a little dry, but other than that I feel fin… fin… I fleel fin…"

His brain felt like it was in a fog. He couldn't form coherent sentences. He didn't know what was happening to him exactly, only that it was bad.

Reid's eyes began to flutter when he started coughing again, black surrounding the edges of his vision as he was beginning to lose consciousness.

He heard lots of alarms and beeping going off, but he couldn't focus on anything other than catching his breath. His whole body was sore and shaking, and his lungs felt like they were bleeding. Something metallic filled his mouth and he felt some liquid begin to spill out of the corner of his mouth.

There was lots of shouting and hands grabbing his body, but Reid's consciousness slipped. He was breathing very shallowly, and soon he felt nothing anymore.

He was floating through a fog, body feeling incredibly heavy and sore. It felt like he'd got hit by a bus. It hurt to breath.

Reid opened his eyes to slits, cringing at the brightness of the light in the room. A fuzzy figure was sitting in front of him.

Morgan. He was reading something and holding… something red looking. Reid blinked, attempting to clear his vision, and attempted wetting his mouth. It was incredibly dry. He gently lifted his head, getting a clearer view of the man.

"You eating jello?" he asked in a very weak voice.

Derek instantly turned his head, beaming at him. "Heh," he laughed lightly, "hey kid."

Reid scrunched his eyes shut, attempting to fill the gap in his memory. He turned his head, looking out into the hallway.

"Hey, doc. Look who's back." Derek said to Dr. Kimura, who was standing outside of the unit.

He looked back to Morgan, suddenly realizing how hungry and dehydrated he was. "Is there any more jello?"

"Hey," Dr. Kimura said, walking into the room with a smile on her face, "not so fast."

Reid weakly propped himself up on his elbows, tiredly looking to Morgan.

"What happened?"
"You're gunna be alright kid. And we got Brown. It's over."

"How's Abby?"

"She's on the mend, so are the three others. You we're right about where to look for his cure."

Reid smiled at this, happy that they'd managed to save those who were left and prevent a mass catastrophe from occurring. His brows began to furrow though at the question that was still hanging in the air.

"Why was Dr. Nichols making anthrax in the first place?"

"He was a brain scientist downgraded to working on the flu. Brown comes along asking for help on his thesis-"

Reid shut his eyes, understanding where Morgan was going with this, "he would have been more than happy to share his knowledge."

"There was no indication that Nichols had any idea what Brown was planning."
"His strain and its cure are getting locked up in containment at Fort Detrick, with all the other bio-agents that people don't know about."
"Hmm, really? What else do they have locked up in there?"

Dr. Kimura shrugged, before turning back to Reid. She stepped forward, looking through his chart and checking vitals. His oxygen levels were still fairly low, hanging around 85%. He couldn't be taken off the oxygen until it was at least at 90%, and ideally, he'd get back to normal at some point.

The ulcer on his hand had shrunk and was getting back to looking like another random cut, which was an improvement as well.

"Now, Dr. Reid, what other pain are you having."
"Kid, no lying here." Derek interjected before Reid could even answer.

He nodded, taking a few breaths before speaking.

"Uh it's hard to breath, obviously, and my body is pretty sore. Uh, I h-have a little bit of a headache and my mouth is dry. A-and um my throat's sore too, I guess." His blinks were getting longer and longer as he spoke, all the energy leaving his body. He felt like he could go back to sleep for a week.

He heard shoes coming a little closer and opened his eyes to see the doctor closer to his side. "I'll grab you some water to drink, but then I want you to get some rest. We're gunna keep you here under observation for a few days to make sure you get back on your feet."
Reid nodded at this, eyes drifting closed again. He heard her footsteps retreat and felt himself losing the battle to stay awake.

Seemingly only a second later, Reid was shaken awake by Derek. The man was holding a cup of water with a straw for him to drink. Reid lethargically blinked, attempting to sit up but was too weak to do so on his own. Derek quickly sat down on the bed next to him, propping him up against his chest so that he could drink. The man held the cup up to Reid's mouth. He quickly gulped down the water, thankful for the soothing effect it had on his throat.

When he finished, Derek put it back on the table next to them and started to scoot out from under Reid.

"Mmmph, M-gn." Reid mumbled, holding onto the man's shirt as he tried to move away.

"It's okay kid, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here next to you."

"Morgannn" he whined, not wanting the warm body to leave him.

"Okay, I'll be right back, alright?" Morgan slid out from under Reid before he could argue, quickly making his way to the door. He shut it, pulling back the curtains so the whole hospital wasn't staring at them. He turned off the lights and closed the blinds before sliding back into the bed besides Reid.

Morgan picked him up, dragging him atop his chest. Reid immediately leaned into the touch, sighing as he rested against his big brother. He was out almost immediately, breathing evening out quickly.

Morgan smiled, ruffling the kid's hair a bit. He grabbed his phone from the table, texting their group chat to update the team that Reid had woken up and was steadily improving. Everyone had wanted to come by today, but Dr. Kimura wouldn't have let them in anyways since Reid was in the ICU. She'd only broken protocol for Morgan because he'd been there at the house with them the whole time.

Hopefully they'd be able to move him to a normal room by tomorrow, and people could come visit then.

Until then, Morgan would watch over him.