Oh My God. Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god. No way. There's just no way, is there? I mean-No! Nah. It- this- he… huh, okay, stop panicking! Breathe, girl, breathe! Breathe.
Garcia had Hotch on speed-dial, so she reached for the phone and pushed one single button, almost dropping the phone in the process since her hands were shaking violently, failing miserably at the "breathe". Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.
"Hotchner."
"Hotch!" Garcia shrieked, making the unit chief distance phone from his ear. "Did Reid talk to you?" she asked in such a way she could make a psychopath worry about her.
"Not really. Do you know something?" Hotch asked curious and worried.
"Yes, I know something!" she said in a well-of-course-I-do-why-else-would-I-call-you sort of way, as she panicked and then lowered her voice more talking to herself than anyone else "I can't believe this. This is crazy. Ooh, my poor baby-"
"Penelope." Hotch intercepted "Please calm down."
"But I- Hotch he- the… That sadistic son of a bitch." She suddenly concluded, regaining her composure and sounding outrageously angry; like no one had ever heard her before.
"Who, Garcia? Why?" Hotch asked getting more curious and desperate by the second.
"The UNSUB. Our guy. He killed another victim." Garcia lost her cool again and continued almost crying "He killed her."
Hotch's core sank as he barely had the strength -or will- to ask "Who?" with the softest voice so he was only just audible.
"His mom! Reid's mom. Diana Reid. He killed her!""
Hotch's eyes widened so much it looked as if they were going to pop out of their sockets, and speechless, he hung up.
OOOXOOOXOOO
After receiving that terrible piece of information, it took Hotch a couple of minutes to get back to his senses. And when he did, the first thing he did was rush to the room he had left Reid behind and made a detour to encounter Morgan on his way there.
"Morgan. Bad news."
"What's up?" Morgan asked, not sounding as concerned as he should be at that point. Hotch assumed he had been having one of his typical conversations with Garcia just a minute before Hotch himself had spoken to her. Hotch sighed deeply, not quite knowing how to break this news to the muscular agent standing in front of him, and decided to go the straightforward way after he sighed again.
"Diana Reid is dead."
As soon as those words exited his boss's mouth, Morgan's eyes widened considerately as he stumbled on his own words for some seconds before being able to form a correct sentence.
"What happened?" His voice was as gentle and quiet as he could get it to be. It had actually been quite a miracle he hadn't burst and punched a wall or start screaming at Hotch, sliding in some swearing and flying insults. But Morgan was doing a hell of an effort to not. And Hotch could tell.
"Our UNSUB killed her, Morgan."
Morgan took some seconds to absorb the facts, after which he suddenly realized something that made him sigh hopelessly as he grabbed his forehead.
"Oh my God…"
Hotch was a little confused by Morgan's attitude, and thus, asked:
"What?"
"That- uh- that must have been the phone call he got earlier."
Hotch more or less mimicked Morgan's prior reaction, as he, too, sighed and also covered part of his face with his hands.
"Right… um, yeah, tha- that was probably it."
It took the both of them quite some time before someone to speak again. And when someone did, it was quiet and respectful, like one would speak at a funeral. Which, they realized, wouls soon be the case.
"Let's go, Morgan."
OOOXOOOXOOO
On their arrival at the room Reid was currently being held in, the sight saddened Hotch and Morgan. Reid was nervously taping his foot on the floor and biting his nails. From far away, it also seemed he had been crying, or at least was about to. The two spectators gazed at each other before walking up to the young man. Only when they were a couple of feet away from him did he notice; looking up at them a little startled and clearing his throat.
"Oh, hey guys! Can I get out of here anytime soon?" he said as cheerily as possible.
The two other agents only looked at him with very meaning-filled faces; very easy to read for a skilled profiler like Reid. Their eyes showed misery, their body language showed empathy and respect, the looks they gave him illustrated the fact that they knew. And Reid could tell; which created an uncomfortable silence between the three of them. Finally, after a minute or so, Reid shook his head in both directions one time, sighed, and said:
"Just… just tell me."
Reid shifted between Hotch and Morgan, staring at the both of them, begging for an answer. But above all, praying the answer was not what he thought –and feared- it was. The look in the other agents' eyes was almost enough to answer, but still he needed what was next to be really certain. Morgan shook his head and sighed.
"Sorry, kid."
There wasn't much of a change on Reid's expression -Morgan and Hotch assumed it was because the kid had been smart enough to figure it out himself- all he did was inhale deeply, and after a few seconds, clear his throat before talking quietly; his voice breaking in the process.
"Could you give me a minute alone, please?"
Way too polite. The kid could have been screaming at them and telling them to 'go the fuck away', they wouldn't have minded. But it was in his nature to be that way. Screaming and getting mad just wasn't his thing.
The two older agents nodded and civilly left the room without saying another word.
OOOXOOOXOOO
Reid couldn't believe it. I mean, he could… but he couldn't. It was all very hard to explain, even for that big old brain of his. He just hadn't quite had time to fully absorb what had just happened. His mother was dead, and the world seemed like another now. There was a puncture in his soul, a feeling of emptiness in his character. He didn't think he'd ever be the same again. His world, his life revolved around her. He told her everything and she understood everything. She was the only woman he had ever loved, since he had never had a real girlfriend; his mother had been all he had. And now she was gone. Killed. Stabbed. More than once. Probably more than twenty -more than thirty times. Bloody. Messy. Frightening -No! He had to stop thinking about that; he didn't have to think about that. It was painful enough for him without bearing in mind how painful it had been for her.
Reid had been lost in thought that when the nurse finally arrived with the discharge papers, she startled him so much he nearly hit the roof.
"Ooh, sorry for that."
Reid cleared his throat again. "That's no problem."
"Okay, so, Dr. Reid, here are your discharge papers. You just have to sign here," she pointed at a blank on her piece of paper "and then you're free to go!"
The nurse seemed to be having a good day -contradictory to Reid- which was why, with everything she said, she had a huge smirk on her face and a cheery glow in her eyes. Reid took hold of the papers and the pen the nurse was handing him, and signed. He looked around the room rapidly and concluded there was no team member present, so he stopped the nurse, who was about to leave.
"Excuse me, could you do me a favor?"
The woman smiled still and happily exclaimed "Sure!"
"Do you remember the people I was with earlier?"
"Um, no, sorry. Another doctor attended to you."
"Oh… right. Well, anyway, it's two agents called Morgan and Hotchner. Could you please tell them I've left? And shut off my cell phone. I'll turn it back on when I'm ready."
With that, Reid hurried out of the hospital, knowing the information he had left the nurse to find Morgan and Hotch was barely enough. But he knew she could figure it out. And that wasn't really his problem right then.
OOOXOOOXOOO
So yeah it's pretty obvious at this point I dropped this story. I'm sorry, I know it sucks to read a story and having it be dropped. I'm looking for someone to adopt this story. My author's notes made me cringe so I deleted many of them.