They sprinted out of the bar and towards the location of the scream. They all knew who it was. Reid had made that clear.
*"Briana." He whispered to himself in disbelief.
"Who?" The blonde beside him had asked. He looked to her and felt the guilt again, only so much worse.
"Reid." Morgan called from across the bar. "Where's Parker?"
Sudden recognition flashed through him, and the race began*
"Leave me the hell alone!" They heard her shriek from a block away. Both Morgan and Reid reached a speed Jesse Owens would find shocking, and they rounded into the ally just in time.
She was shoved against a dirty brick wall, pain clearly etched in her face. His Briana. His Briana was being held against her will, was being hurt- physically and mentally- and was about to be sexually assaulted. His Briana.
Pure, animalistic instinct overpowering him, Spencer yanked the would-be rapist by the back of his hair and tossed like trash to the other side of the ally. Before he could go after the sick son of a bitch, Morgan already had the man held up in the cooling air by the collar and his stained and wrinkled t-shirt.
About to go tell Morgan to back off and let him have his way with the "man", Spencer stopped abruptly when he heard a gasp of pain behind.
He whipped around and looked down at his girlfriend, who was sitting on the ground and desperately attempting to remove her ankle-boot. Drowning in a pool of concern, Spencer knelt down beside her and brushed messy blood-red hair behind her ear.
Ignoring his presence, she tried again to remove her boot, resulting once more in a small yelp of pain.
"Briana," He pleaded, his only focus in the world on the whimpering woman in front of him, "Sweety, what happened? Did he hurt you? Do you need to go to the hospital?"
Continuing to ignore him, she looked up at Hotch and Rossi- Emily and JJ having gone back to the bar to pay the tap and call the police- and asked a rather...odd question.
"Either one of you got a knife?"
Even odder? Rossi tossed her a pocket a knife.
"Thanks." She mumbled, flipping the small blade opening and sticking the tip of it in her boot. Spencer watched in shock as she cut off her boot- drawing some blood as she- and revealed a swelling, purple and black ankle.
"Oh, God," Spencer heard himself utter in shock, "Bri, you have to get that checked out."
"You need to keep your damned promises." She snapped.
Her biting comment and tone made him look away from her ankle and to her revealed face.
The sight broke his heart.
There was a large scrap on the side of face, just centimeters away from one of her eyes. Which, by the way, were two seconds from running over with salty tears.
It didn't occur to Spencer that he was the reasons for the tears.
"Just leave me alone." She snapped at the confused and concerned face before her, jerking away from his touch and using the wall and her hands to slowly walk herself up into a standing position.
"Briana-" He tried to start.
"Don't even." She growled at him through clenched teeth. He probably thought it was just because she was in pain, and not because she was pissed. Argo, he was probably wrong.
When she finally stood, natural instinct took over and she tried to balance on both of her feet. Big mistake. Even she was scared of the sound of agony, shock and just plain pain that erupted from her vocal cords.
"Ahhhh!" She screeched as she quickly shifted all of her weight onto her none-messed-up foot.
"Bri-" Spencer called, reaching to help her. Again, she jerked away.
"Stop it!" She yelled at him, finally feeling the cool wetness on her cheeks that let her know that she was, in fact, crying. "I don't need your damned help or fucking pity!
"I don't need your drama, I don't need your empty promises and I don't need you!"
By the time she finished, Spencer himself was on the verge of tears. It almost made her feel bad. Almost.
Without saying another word, she hobbled out of the ally.
"You're not walking home, are you?" She heard Rossi call when they finally realized she wasn't going to stop.
"Plannin' on it." She called back, the bitterness still in her voice.
And with that, she staggered the five and a half blocks to her building, her silent tears flowing freely.
So, here we are. Friends turned enemies. Partners turned competitors. Teammates turned rivals. Briana thought as she glared at the stairwell door. She knew it wouldn't be smart to try to walk up three flights of stairs, but she really, really, really didn't want to even attempt the elevator.
The sound of a car pulling to a stop in the parking lot brought her to turn and look out the front, glass door. Spencer was getting out of a taxi.
Shit!
He was paying the driver, so he hasn't seen her yet. Good, she still had time to avoid him.
Looking back at the stairwell door with her adrenaline pumping, she flung the door open and tried(looking ridiculous doing so) to run up the first flight, making sure he didn't see her.
She made it to the first landing when she collapsed in pain.
"Shit." She gasped as she scooted to the wall and latched onto the rail. Taking a few deep breaths, she pulled herself up and started up the stairs again, at a much slower pace this time around.
She hobbled to her refrigerator and opened the freezer, grabbing an ice pack. She yanked on the roll of paper towels sitting next to the fridge and wrapped a couple of the still-connected towels around the pack.
Hopping across her living room and down the hall, she reached the hall closet just in time to hold onto the knob and stop herself from falling flat on her face. Regaining her one-foot balance, she opened the door and searched for a roll of gauze. When she found it, she grabbed a box of clasps and hoped back into the living room and fell on her couch.
Just as she got the ice pack in place around her ankle, there was a knock on her door.
"One second!" She shouted as she quickly tried to wrap the gauze around the pack and her ankle.
The person knocked again.
"One! Second!" She yelled again. Just as she tied the remaining gauze in a knot, the person knocked again.
"Goddamnit!" She bellowed while stumbling to the door and opened it, "I said one sec-"
"And it's been 35 1/2." Spencer Reid replied.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Another cliff-hanger! Dude, I've been loving these things. Not just for these stories, but I'm taking like, three communication classes and my therapist wants me to write stories to express my feelings (like I havn't been doing that already :p) and I keep doing cliff-hangers. In fact, Nick, the guy that wants people to choke on his penis, is in a writing class and he brings me his old assignments to do and I wrote this alternate ending that's totally depressing and stuff lol
Annnnnnnnnnnnnnyway, is the site acting up for anyone else? I'm not getting any kind emails or anything and it's really bugging me. And thank you for all of the well wishes!