I apologize for the update last night. I only got about four hours of seep the night before. I hope this can somewhat make up for it. I'm officially replacing that chapter, because it sucked.
Spencer Reid, mentions of Maeve Donovan, Emily Prentiss, Aaron Hotchner
"Hey, Hotch, where's the coffee?"
It was the first question that Reid asked every morning in the hotels; it was one way of knowing that he was normal. Then Hotch would point out the coffee pot, Reid's obsession, and the genius would pour himself a mug of coffee-flavored sugar. It could be counted on, for as long as anyone on the team could remember.
When Reid didn't ask, they knew. Something was wrong.
He didn't ask after Georgia for several months. Once he finally did, it was too late for them to help him. He'd beaten his addiction on his own, brought himself back to the surface, and clawed his way back to safety, but that could only last so long.
He came dangerously close to falling back to where he was after Emily's "death" As much as he pretended not to, he still didn't fully trust JJ or Hotch after that. He could try, but he knew that he couldn't fix a rift like that one. A simple coking party at Rossi's wouldn't fix it.
He came even closer after Maeve died, close enough that he had the syringe in his hand, laced with poison that would make him forget, but he thought about Maeve, and he realized that she wouldn't want this, even though he'd never even touched her.
He wished for more time, but never got it. He began to heal, slowly, fueled by the presence of his team, his family.
And a couple of weeks later, he'd ask Hotch for the coffee again, and everyone knew he'd pull through.