You know that feeling when you find a complete story just sitting on your computer for months because you forgot you completed it? This is one of those stories. It takes place late season 3 and references earlier seasons. I haven't seen the episodes w/ Tobias Hankel in a while so I'm working off memory. Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.
Reid's P.O.V
To be fair we should have known something was going to go wrong. It had been too long since the last mess the team had gotten into, (One thing Strauss has always been right about was our pension for trouble.) and one of us was bound to get in trouble soon… but why did it have to be me?
It was a fairly basic case. Four work-place bullies kidnapped and tortured before being killed with their own office supplies. They were targeted after getting their dream promotions despite their bullying nature. The Unsub ended up being a computer hacker named Phil Sanderson (thank you, Garcia). He used to work in all four of the buildings before being fired for infecting computers instead of fixing them. And when we raided his apartment, we found lists of targeted wealthy work-place bullies.
We arrested him right before he killed another man and he confessed to all 4 murders. What we didn't profile, is that he had a partner. So here we were driving to the partner's house, (only the B.A.U because 3 cops had been injured and the department was already understaffed.) Everyone was annoyed but Morgan was the worst because according to him he had. "Better things to do than chase after an Unsub's partner at 5:25 in the morning."
While everyone else was annoyed and ready to go home. I was worried because of the uneasy feeling that had settled over me ever since I entered the van.
We stopped at the house and stepped out. Morgan broke down the door and walked inside followed by Hotch, Prentiss, and me. We split up (our first mistake) Morgan going down the hallway, Hotch up the stairs, and with Prentiss taking the office, forcing me to take the kitchen and living room.
Just my luck, he was hiding in the kitchen. I clear the living room before he jumped on me holding a knife. I dropped my gun and tried to knock him off.
"You're going to be my ticket out of here boy. If you want to live you're going to head out that back door and get in the van. Then we're going to take a drive, if your team works with me then they may find you alive. You got that boy?" He asks.
I almost roll my eyes. What's up with every Unsub trying to kill me? Then, and only then. Do I remember that this was a dangerous and possibly life-threating situation.
"Got that!" He yells. The knife cut my throat slightly and I gasped.
"I don't take order from you," I say breathlessly reaching down into my pockets, it should be there.
"What did you say!?" He asked scowling, there it was. I take the small bottle and put my finger on the trigger. In one quick swoop, I pushed the trigger spraying the Unsub right in the eyes.
He dropped me and screamed rubbing his eyes and moaning alerting the team where he was. By the time they got down there, I had arrested the man and was carting him out.
"What did you do to my eyes?!" He screamed as we but him in the car.
"Spencer, what did you do to him?" Prentiss asked as we pull up to the station.
"Oh! He threatened me with a knife and tried to kidnap me, so I sprayed him in the face with pepper spray." I said picking up my stuff as Prentiss stood there gasping.
"You carry pepper spray?" She asks smirking.
"Yeah, if you've been kidnapped and held hostage as much as I have you start to take precautions," I say taking down the pictures of the victims.
"Clever." She admitted
"Who carries pepper spray?" Morgan asks walking into the room.
"Spencer, that's what he did to the Unsub." Prentiss says as Morgan laughs.
"Only you kid, only you." He says ruffling my hair.
I bat his hand away as we walk out to meet the rest of the team.
"Actually…" Before I could finish telling them the percentage of people who carry pepper in the United States Rossi cut me off as I got in the car going to board the airplane.
"Can you even carry pepper spray?"
I shrug, "No one's told me I can't." I say as Rossi shrugs.
Time skip to airplane time skip to airplane time skip to airplane time skip to airplane time skip to airplane time skip to airplane time skip to
"So, when did you start carrying pepper spray?" Hotch asks on the plane.
"Well after Hankel I started to carry it in my house and in my bag. I started carrying it on my person during the anniversary week because I was paranoid, and it made me feel better. After that I just never stopped." I admit looking down.
Rossi looked confused mouthing to Morgan. "After Hankel." Morgan shook his head and Rossi's eyes went to Hotch to explain.
After Hotch shook his head Rossi looked at me and I knew I was going to have to say something. I look anxiously at Hotch and Rossi before saying.
"You can tell him Hotch. You're team leader after all." It was fine. It was fine. I was fine. JJ was fine. Hankel's six feet under. You made it. You made it. They understood.
"You sure Reid, what happened with Tobias Hankel should be explained by you." Hotch asked, giving me a look.
"I don't think I want to talk about it yet." I say looking down curling my toes.
"Reid, I need you to look at me." He says I don't budge.
"Look at me, Reid." He says a little harsher.
"Hotch cool it, give the kid a second." Morgan says.
"Spencer, I need you to look me in the eye and tell me it's ok for me to tell him." He says softly.
"I need to make sure this isn't going to set you back Spencer." He says making sure to use my name to ground me in the present.
I look up at him "Hotch it's fine. It's not that big of a deal."
Morgan snorts but JJ quickly shuts him up with a look.
"What do you know about Tobias Hankel?" Hotch starts as we all look at Rossi. He looked a little confused, a little nervous, and a little curious.
"Well, I read a little about his crimes at the B.A.U. I was curious to find out what I missed. I know what he did to his victims and why, but I don't know how Reid fits into this." He admits.
"JJ and Reid went to interview Hankel as a possible witness. When they found he was the Unsub they split up in an effort to find him. Reid tracked him down but was blindsided in a cornfield. He got held for two days and beat in a shed. Reid was drugged while we were forced to watch on the tapes he sent us. Between the stress, drugs, and torture Reid had a seizure, stopping his heart." Hotch said quietly.
"When was this?" Rossi asked shocked.
"A little more than a year ago." I say quietly.
"They managed to find you? Resuscitate you before it was too late?" Rossi asked confused. The entire team looked down.
"Tobias resuscitated me, he hadn't gotten a confession, so he saved me." I whisper.
"How did you find him?" Rossi asked quietly.
"I called Hotch a narcissist." I say bluntly trying to squeeze something funny into the thick tension. Rossi laughed a little raising an eyebrow.
"You didn't get into trouble for that later did you?" Rossi asked trying to give the plane some energy.
"Special circumstances." Hotch grunts trying to keep the flow going.
"How did that help lead you to him?" Rossi asks confused.
"Reid was very emphatic when saying certain things and misquoted some lines." Prentiss said quietly shaking her head slightly.
"Hotch isn't a narcissist and Reid doesn't misquote things." Rossi said as the pieces started to fall into place.
"Ooh." He said simply, looking at me the same way Gideon did in that graveyard and if that wasn't one of the worst ways for this to end then Reid didn't know what was.
"You said you were drugged." Rossi asked looking at my arms. He was too far away to see the little scars I will never make more of or reopen.
I just nod.
"Yet you still managed to give your team your position. You know I teach a short few day classes at the FBI academy about hostage situations like the ones you were in I wouldn't mind you giving a short speech." Rossi says.
I freeze and stutter out "I'll think about it."
"Well no more of this dark stuff, does anyone else carry pepper spray on this team or is it just Reid?" Rossi asked jokingly.
"I think Garcia had some in her apartment." Morgan says thinking hard.
"I tried to give my mom some." I said embarrassed.
They all looked at me like I was crazy.
"Let me guess, that didn't last long." Prentiss said smiling.
"She was doing well for a while and well it is Vegas. She ended up spraying me in the face twice." I felt my face going red.
"Twice?!" JJ questioned giggling.
"Yeah." JJ ruffled my hair and smiled.
"Only you Spence." Only you."
"Alright we have a long trip ahead of us and I heard from a good source we have a case tomorrow." JJ said moving to another spot in the jet to find somewhere to sleep.
"You pick most of the cases." Morgan says putting his headphones on.
"I know." She says smiling as Morgan shakes his head.
"She's right, get some sleep guys." Hotch says as everyone settles down.
TIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIPTIMESKIP
I pull out my 1-year sobriety chip and play with it, moving it between my fingers. I didn't see Rossi come up until it was too late. I shove it into my pocket quickly and he looks at me funny.
"What were you playing with?" Rossi asked sitting down next to me. The sun was setting over DC, everything covered in a golden haze.
"Nothing!" I say quickly. I didn't want anyone to know despite my joy. An entire year, I made it!
"You're a horrible liar." Rossi says blandly.
"Fork it over." He says expectedly holding out his hand.
I sigh and hand it over. He looks at it and smiles.
"I knew there was more someone wasn't telling me. Your struggle didn't end once you got found did it?" Rossi questions.
"Don't ask questions you already know the answers to." I state simply. Despite being told Rossi didn't know everything, didn't know I had shot Tobias, didn't know what I was drugged with, didn't even know I dug my own grave.
"1 year's a big deal. When did you get it?" He asked.
"Last week." I say quietly.
"Come on, we should celebrate. I heard from Garcia you haven't seen Sherlock yet?" He asks.
"I've been meaning to."
"Well I have a projector and it's Friday so how about I get the team together and we can watch a couple of episodes." He asks.
"I'd like that, I'd like that a lot." I say standing up.
"Oh! Here." Rossi says throwing me back the coin.
I catch it, looking at the token for another second before putting it in my pocket.
And for once, there was no statistic that could capture my feelings.
Friendship could heal any wound, maybe even ones I thought were gone.
I despise this ending, but I couldn't find another way to end it. If you want just replace the ending with whatever you can dream up in your mind.