Recovery

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

They stood and looked down into the darkness. It was hard to make out who was who in the inky blackness below.

Morgan heard a sound coming from Gideon. A sound of distress. Jason turned and ran back out of the door, with Derek close behind. Gideon was shouting into his cell phone for medics to get there.

The two of them ran through the house to the back kitchen door and out to the patio. They could see now two forms. One laying on top of the other. They ran forwards hearts thumping.

Morgan could hear a faint whimpering noise. He stepped forwards trying to avoid the growing puddle of dark fluid seeping around them.

Flanders was laying face up on the patio his eyes looking blankly up to the stars. Reid was laying partially across him with his head on Floyd's chest.

He felt Reid's pulse and looked up to Jason and nodded. There seemed small chance that Floyd would still be alive, but Morgan bent over them to feel for a pulse there too. The odd keening sounds from Reid increased, and when Derek moved to close Flanders eyes a hand came over and slapped him away.

"Don't you touch him!"

Morgan could see that the fingers of his right hand were interlaced with Floyd's.

"Reid, can you move?"

"Go away. Leave me alone."

Jason knelt down so Reid could see him. "You are doing good Spencer. But you need to let go of him now. The medics are here. You need to go with them." He was talking quietly and stroking the back of Reid's hair ignoring the stickiness he could feel. "I will stay here and take care of Floyd. You don't need to worry. Derek can go with you to the hospital."

"Gideon." And a series of choked sobs.

"Shush now Spencer, I am here now, I will look after Floyd. You need to go and get checked out. You have been drugged and you fell a long way. Go sort yourself out and then you can worry about Flanders."

"He didn't hurt me."

"We will talk later Spencer. Go and get well – then we can talk." Gently Jason untangled Reid's fingers from Floyd's. Jason was unsure if Reid even knew he was holding his hand until he felt Spencer's fingers reaching out to touch Floyd again.

Morgan took over the job of comforting Reid as he obviously didn't want him near Floyd. He took his hand in his and gave encouraging words. "It will be OK kid. It's all over now." And the words cut through Spencer like a knife.

Jason stood in the moonlight next to the body of the man who had in actuality saved Reid's life. He crouched down next to him and looked into a face which seemed somehow familiar yet strange and gently closed his eyes. He sighed deeply and removed his light weight jacket and laid it over across him. Too late now. Too late to save him but not too late for a bit of dignity.

He stood back and watched the body bag arrive and when they started to move Flanders, he asked them to be respectful. He was a friend. Be gentle. At least he would then have kept his promise to Reid.

Slowly and with a sad heart he walked back to the SUV he had arrived in. He should have been there for him. He shouldn't have run out on him like that. Reid was still getting over the drug abuse problems and he abandoned him and now this. They were going to have to watch his fragile mind. Reid was going to monitored carefully again and Jason knew Reid would object.

…………………….

He sat next to Reid's bed for three days. Spencer laid and looked again at the ceiling and the shadows. His eyes flicking back and forth across looking at the demons in his mind. He read the X-Man comic to him, and he read some Proust and he read everything he could find to read in the hospital reception, and still Spencer stared at the shadows.

When Aaron came to visit he looked tired and sad. Jason knew things between him and Haley were bad and he was aware that Spencer was part of the problem.

"Does Haley know you are here?" He asked quietly at the doorway. The last thing Spencer needed now was a distraught wife screaming accusations down the corridors.

Hotch nodded. "I told her I would be here. What am I meant to do Jason? I can't walk away from him now. Not after what happened. You know he will never forgive Derek."

"He doesn't need to know all the details. Especially not now. He needs to heal and I need to keep my promise. Can you stay while I go to the morgue. I have things to arrange."

Hotch put a hand out on Jason's shoulder. "The man is not innocent of his crimes Jason. We have two missing police officers last seen at his house. He drugged me and abducted Reid. Don't let him trick you."

"The man is dead Aaron. How can he?" And Gideon walked off towards the elevators.

Hotch walked quietly into the room Reid was in and stood by his bed. He needed more than anything now to give comfort to him. He needed to hold him and tell him things to make what had happened go away but he had no words to say. Nothing was big enough or kind enough – so he stood and looked at the scared face and the tears.

Aaron turned when he felt someone was standing at his side. A blonde pretty nurse stood smiling. "You should talk to him. He can hear you. He is awake."

She walked over to Reid and picked up a damp cloth. "Hey Spencer, it's me again." She carefully wiped the cloth over his forehead and for a second his eyes stopped moving around and seemed to look at her. "How you feeling today? Want an update on the soaps?" She stood by the bed and chatted about the previous night's television. Then turned back to Hotch who was still standing not knowing what to do. "Does he play or watch sport? Would he be interested in the latest football results?"

Hotch stepped forwards and smiled. "He wouldn't be even slightly interested."

She smiled at Aaron and then back to Reid. She had started to wipe the cloth over his hand. "I didn't think you looked like a sports man. Too skinny. Not that I have anything against skinny."

……………..

The shadows pushed back at the sound of the voice. She came to talk to him, and he wanted to talk back, but not yet. Not now. Not with the shadows still there. This shouldn't have happened. He shouldn't still be here. It should have been him but again it all went wrong. Spencer could hear the voice chatting away and wiping his brow. He looked and her and wanted to smile, but he was afraid if he moved his mouth the million screams he had sealed behind them would escape.

The cool cloth was now on his hand and the thought he could see Aaron but he wasn't sure; the shadows were coming back again. Playing the same scenes over and over again in his head. Spencer closed his eyes and felt himself falling. He could feel Floyds hand tighten on his and he heard a sharp slapping sound and then nothing except the 'whump whump' in his ears and the feeling of mud covering his legs and water rising to his nose.

…………….

Prentiss. JJ and Morgan had returned to Flanders house. The place was huge yet hardly used. Most of the rooms stood empty. The only places that showed any signs of life where the display room where they had originally found Flanders tied up, the kitchen, which really didn't look that well used, and though the freezer and fridge seemed well stocked with joints of meat. The garage was empty. There was no sign of the red sports car he had and the silver SUV was out in the driveway. There was an office, small that it was it empty, not even a computer desk. The stairs had once had great painting hanging off the walls but now they were smashed and ruined and laying to the side in the hallway. A storage room off the display room peeked there curiosity. Boxes of bones and strips of leather were packed in there. Morgan picked up a long slightly curved bone and showed it to Emily.

"Does this look like a human leg bone to you?"

"I think those things need to been looked at by the lab." She replied as she shifted some bits aside and looked down at a box of what appeared to be teeth. "I think all of this stuff needs to be looked at by the lab." Emily corrected.

Up the stairs and to the right was the bedroom door they had been in previously. It had a big four-poster bed in the middle. The covers were slightly crumbled and Reid's hospital robe was on the floor next to it. Morgan looked at the scene and muttered under his breath. He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Derek." It was Emily. "We don't know what went on here."

JJ went and looked out of the smashed window down at the remains of the blood out on the patio. "How did he survive a fall like that?" She said to herself.

On the top floor of the house they found the ripped up photographs. Hundreds of them torn and on the floor, but very obviously what they had been of. Photographs of Spencer. They picked some of them up, then let them drop back to the floor.

"What the hell was going on here?" Morgan kicked some of the scraps around.

"Well we will never find out now will we?" And her voice held an accusatory tone.

"I did what I had to." He snapped back.

They left the strained conversation there knowing it wouldn't get them anywhere to argue about something they had no way of changing. JJ opened the door to the dark room and let out a sigh.

"He had quite a set up." The smashed cameras were still laying on the floor but it was the table in the middle which caught their attention. Polaroid pictures mainly of the incident at the pool with Lila. Some had been cut up and Lila removed from them and some had writing along the bottom. Different hand writings on different pictures. Some need and printed and some fancy and cursive. Both sets of handwriting looked familiar.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Morgan asked.

JJ dropped the picture she was looking at. "He couldn't have been the unsub in all of those murders Derek and more than one person has been here." Again they would have to leave this to the lab.

…………………………..

Gideon found the receptionist down in the morgue. He needed to arrange a funeral for Reid's friend. He had promised he would take care of things, and he would.

"Hello." He said and attempted to smile. "I need to talk to someone about Floyd Flanders."

The woman behind the desk looked up at Jason and nodded. "I think he has already been collected sir. Let me check for you." She typed in something on her computer as Gideon stood looking puzzled. "Yes I remember. A relative of his Sir. Yesterday picked him up to take him back home."

"I see. Do you have a name? I didn't know he had family."

"I shouldn't really tell you."

"I know you shouldn't but I would really appreciate it if you did."

"Just don't tell anyone I told you." She typed in some more things. "He was European I think. Ah here we are. Mr Daja."

……………………..

Reid sat in his apartment. He wanted, no he needed to be absolutely alone, but they wouldn't let him. He would sit and play chess with Gideon and sometimes he would win.

Occasionally Aaron would pop round but he was back with Haley again and it seemed this is what he wanted. He didn't want to have to deal with the breakup of his marriage and this silent strange man who had taken Reid's place.

The girls came round once a week with ice cream and a movie and he sat and muttered replies back to them and in a way it was fun, and almost like it had been once before.

The only person he didn't see was Morgan. He had requested that he kept away from him. He needed to ask 'why' but didn't think he could cope with the answer.

Every night he lay on the top of his covers too afraid to feel covered and constricted by the weight. He tried to stay awake for as long as he could, not knowing what his mind would conjure up for him that night.

He would be having a psych evaluation soon, and he would pass yet again. As he did after the Hankel thing happened. He passed then. He hid it well. But for now he must lay here in the half light and try not to sleep. Then when sleep would finally arrive he would see Floyd's face. That dead face and the empty eyes, and he will know it was his fault. He wasn't strong enough to do what should have been done. Drifting in the shadows and floating in his dreams and nightmares he would keep falling and falling, trying to make sure he was on the bottom next time, but never quite managing it.

In the mornings he would get up and smile at Gideon who had been sleeping in his chair since he came out of hospital. He would have a shower and he would wash his hair and clean his teeth and then go and eat the eggs and pancakes Jason would have cooked.

"Excuse me a minute." Spencer would suddenly say, and make a rush for the bathroom, closing and locking the door and turning on the taps and finally the relief of throwing up. At least he had this. The rest of his life might be controlled by something else. But this. Yes this was his.

……………………….

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!