Arms Of Comfort.
!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.
Let us leave pretty women to men devoid of imagination. – Marcel Proust
Reid was directed away from Flanders and received a barrage of questions from the CSU about what he had touched.
"N n nothing. I didn't touch anything"
The CSU supervisor didn't look happy. Damned Feds walking all over his crime scene was a bad enough but this particular Agent seemed like he had a screw loose. He watched the young agent standing there with his hands wrapped tightly around himself looking at the bodies being removed from the pool.
"You didn't open any doors?"
"No – no the doors were open."
"You thought to put something on your feet? Are we going to find your footprints all over the house?"
"Erm – Sorry?" Reid was not listening; he was now watching the crime scene crew taking samples from Flanders. "Excuse me, but what are they doing that for?" He turned from the man and started to walk over to his friend. He felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Dr Reid, I need to ask you some questions."
"What?" he turned back to the man from the lab. "What questions?"
"Are we going to find your footprints all over the house Dr Reid?" He noted how unsettled and distressed this agent seemed to be. Definitely not normal. He made a mental note to look further into this person who happened to arrive at the house just after it all happened. He didn't like coincidences like that.
"I went up the stairs and into the back bedroom. I didn't touch anything." Reid turned and watched the paramedics taking Flanders away to the awaiting ambulance.
"Did you think to glove up?" The man was standing uncomfortably close to Reid now, who started to back off looking puzzled.
"I didn't touch anything." He repeated and turned to walk off to find Hotch. He wanted to know what they had been taking GSR samples from Floyd for. As he moved away the crime scene analyst took him by the arm again.
"I will find out if you were involved in this. Your badge won't protect you."
But Reid's mind was a long way away now and locked on talking to Hotch. This man from the lab wouldn't be able to distract him.
Hotch was looking down at the two wet forms laying at the side of Flanders pool. Reid stood next to him and looked at the empty open eyes. The sort of eyes Morgan had told him about once. Accusing eyes. "Hotch. Why did you request GSR tests on Flanders? You think he did this?" Pointing to the carnage, "And then threw himself out of a window?" He stood and looked down at the bodies now being enclosed in bags.
"I didn't say that. I need him cleared. He was the only one here when this happened, and he was drugged. He admitted as much." Hotch looked over at Reid and could see the hurt on his face. He did what any one would have done and put an arm around the young agent's shoulder. Then did something that only Hotch would and pulled Reid close. "It will be OK Spencer. Whoever is doing this is very sick and we will find out who it is." Reid took in the warm safe comfortable scent of Aaron and sighed deeply.
……………
Reid lay under the covers in the hotel room. He was looking at the shadows on the ceiling and listening to Morgan's steady breathing. He could feel something pulling at the back of his mind. Something nasty and something he didn't want to close his eyes for. He watched as something floated down from the ceiling he had been inspecting. Black coils of something. He opened his mouth to alert Morgan but something coiled around his throat and pulled his head to the side. He felt things sliding over his body and slipping across his stomach. He wanted to scream but the coils were now wrapped around his face and sliding down into his mouth. A pain unlike anything he had ever felt before and a popping feeling when the slimy rubbery tentacle broke through his flesh just below his navel and started its journey under Reid's skin. They were now in his hair and pulling at his neck and head.
When his neck snapped it made a strange cracking noise and all pain instantly stopped. He could hear a voice but was unable to move. He was staring at the wall of the hotel room and tried to concentrate on what was being said. He was going to die. He knew that much. If someone moved him he would be instantly snuffed out. He could feel someone touching his hair and talking to him.
"Reid, wake up."
He was awake.
"Reid, you are having a nightmare. Wake up."
"Don't move my head Morgan. I will die" He whispered.
"Reid you had a nightmare."
He could feel the weight of Morgan sitting on the bed next to him and then he could feel a hand on his chest. "Don't." Reid muttered
"Look at me Reid." Morgan put a hand gently under Reid's head and turned his head to so he could see him. He had wide scared eyes and tear tracks.
Reid turned to look at Morgan and at first he saw him and all seemed to be fine. Yes it was a nightmare but the image of Derek morphed into something else and he could feel his neck was wrong and he felt his hands twitching and again something tightening around his neck only this time he was able to scream.
Morgan turned Reid so he was laying on his right side facing the wall and lay down next to him. He wasn't fighting him off; he just seemed to be in a state of total terror. He slipped one arm under Reid's thin shoulder and the other around him and placed a hand on his chest. He could feel Reid's heart thumping madly. "Reid man, wake up."
More muttering but he couldn't work out what Reid was saying. Morgan knew about nightmares, so he wrapped his arms tighter around Spencer so at least when he woke up he would feel safe.
Spencer could feel himself being rolled onto his side. He could feel arms around him. He tried to beg whatever it was to let him go, to leave him alone, to not do this to him. But it did anyway.
……………
Hotch sat holding a sleeping Jack. "It can't carry on like this Aaron."
"Like what? This is my job Haley. You knew that." He didn't take his eyes off his young son sleeping so innocently.
Haley sat on the bed next to Aaron. "You know what I am talking about."
"I am here Haley. I am here with you and Jack. This is where I need to be, and where I want to be." Haley leaned gently on her husband and rested her head on his shoulder and Aaron wished it was Spencer.
……………
Flanders lay in his hospital bed. They had pulled chunks of glass out of his back and splinters out of his scalp. He had requested the phone so he could arrange someone to go and fix his window and was waiting for detective Morrison to come and talk to him about what happened.
Morrison was short with a tightly cropped hair cut. A small tough looking man. He pulled up a chair and sat down next to Flanders bed.
"Up to answering some questions?"
"Not really. Come back later."
"I wasn't really giving you an option Flanders."
"So it seems. What did you want to know?" He rolled over onto his side so he could see the detective easier and winced in pain.
"Can you tell me what you saw?"
"No. I don't know what I saw."
"Elaborate."
"I was hallucinating. I don't know what was real."
"Hallucinating why?"
"I snorted some coke. I had a bad trip, and I fell out of the window. That's all I know."
"You didn't fall. That is a definite push. What happened?" The detective was watching Floyd carefully.
A small painful shake of the head. "I have no idea."
"I need you to think carefully Flanders. Who was with you. What did you do with the gun?"
Floyd grimaced as he tried to sit up. "The what?"
"The weapon you used to kill the people in your pool while you were out of your brains on some drug."
"I don't own a gun. I didn't kill anyone!"
"Then explain the Gun Shot Residue you are covered in."
…………….
!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!