A/N: Hello again, everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds. No copyright infringement is intended.
My apologies if I had made any mistakes but enjoy the chapter!
And my apologies for the (slight) use of language in this chapter.
Again.
Reid and Élise invited Alvez, Garcia, Simmons, and Tara to their house and hanged with Chinese takeout and drinks in their family room.
Soon, Garcia announced to them she recived an opportunity with a private research group that's expanding their stratagem to combat global environmental change.
In the Silicon Valley.
Reid knew Rossi would still be working on the Chameleon case, so he went to where he knew Rossi would go.
And that place was the Bunker.
The place Rossi showed Reid where it all began after the unfortunate passing of Jason Gideon.
Rossi guessed that the only reason Lynch didn't kill him the previous year is that he probably reminded him of his own biological father.
Reid told Rossi Roberta has her own agenda to avenge Grace's death, and the only way to defeat Lynch once and for all is to 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."
Reid nodded and joked. "I know I won't ever forget mine."
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."
Anastasia asked. "What was she cooking?"
Élise joked before giggling. "Probably salad."
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.
The corpus of Everett Lynch's biological father, Delvin Weaver.
Rossi stated to them that Everett Lynch wants to meet Rossi.
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.
Reid began to approach the house with some of the FBI SWAT officers.
"Spence!" JJ cried out for him.
BOOM!
A huge explosion happened.
"Spence!" JJ's fainted voice calls out for him after he hit his head against the stone concrete.
"What…?" Reid felt this buzzing in his head.
"Spence, are you okay?" JJ asked again.
As Reid rubs his head, "Hopefully. Ouch." Finally asking, "What happened?"
JJ answered. "Six FBI SWAT officers have been confirmed dead so far in the explosion, according to Prentiss."
Reid winced, "And Lynch?"
"He was said to be among the casualties," JJ answered again.
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 an explosion."
"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 set his bags and keys to the side.
Suddenly his head was hurting him. "I don't understand." Reid began talking to himself as he walks into the living room.
"Hey, sweet brain." Élise happily greeted her husband.
"It doesn't make sense to me." Reid unintendedly ignored Élise.
Élise sounded concerned. "Babe, are you sure you're okay after the bombing?"
"No-no..."
Élise was now starting to get nervous. "Sweetheart, your nose…"
Reid muttered, "He's still alive."
He soon passed out.
"SPENCER!"
As Reid walks into the bullpen, as if it was a typical day at work, "What the…?"
Morgan? But isn't he retired?
Elle? She left...
Hotch...
But Gideon's dead...
It was all starting to get too much for him, so he rushes over to Garcia's office.
Only it wasn't Garcia...
It was Strauss...
She soon told him that he has intracranial hemorrhaging; parts of his brain were shutting down, and he will be going on a journey.
Before Reid knew it, he was now standing in a corner where he soon encounters.
And saw George 'The Reaper' Foyet.
Who began to laugh maniacally as Reid stared at the possible picture of himself hanging on the wall of fallen agents.
Élise began to bite down on her fingernails nervously and soothed her belly just as the doctors tended 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 asked.
"Spencer passed out when he came home." An anxious Élise replied before she tried 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 started massaging the back of her neck. "Did Reid go to the hospital after the bombing?"
"Élise…"
She shrieked.
"SOMEBODY BETTER GIVE ME SOME ANSWERS REAL QUICK!" "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 YOCTOSECOND AFTER THAT...EFFNG BOMBING THAT COULD HAVE TAKEN HIS LIFE?!"
"You're causing a scene." Alvez tried to calm her down.
Élise growled, "I DON'T GIVE A TWO CENT AND A DOLLAR ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW!" She let out a groan before she heard footsteps behind her.
"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 nodded 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. Now, if you really want to help me, find the bastard and send him to hell where he belongs. 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 added, "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 snapped his fingers, Reid found himself at a different place.
"Good to see you again, Doc."
And a very familiar voice called to him.
...Maeve...
With blonde hair
Reid immediately began to think about his last moments with Maeve when Diane Turner killed both of them and apologized for not saving her.
Maeve told him her deepest and darkest secret: her love for cheesy nineties rom-drams and rom-coms, and her 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...
Before telling him...
"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...
"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.
"Mama Diana." Élise hugged 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 stroked 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 tried to stop her.
Diana walked past her and approached 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 started 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 confessed as he sat down at a nearby bench.
"So much has happened to you." Maeve comforted 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 started 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.'"
Maeve beamed. "Exactly. Remember when we argued about the world's greatest poet?"
"We argued for four hours," Reid remembered. "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 hugged 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 reminisced a memory to 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 can hear you." Reid hazily said.
"Baby." Diana patted her son's head.
"Forgot how much I loved those clouds, Mom," Reid replies. "You helped me remember."
"Baby!" Élise gently hugged Reid. "You're awake. And if you want, we can watch clouds together."
Reid gulped. "Am I alive, or is this heaven?"
Diana teary said. "Sweetie, you are very much alive."
"Daddy!" Anastasia rushed into Reid's bedside with Jack and Hotch behind her.
"Hi, baby!" He accepted her hug after Élise picked up Anastasia and lightly placed her on his lap.
"Are you okay?"
Smiling with a tear falling, "I am now."
Élise was just coming back from the cafeteria with some Jell-O for everybody when she runs into a familiar face.
"Hey, Hotch."
Hotch just came 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 pouted 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 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 chuckled since she knew what she meant.