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Spoilers for 'Revelations' (Season Two) and 'Elephant's Memory'(Season Three).

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'A Force of Nature'

Chapter Seven

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Reid walked down the hallway yawning. As he passed into the living room he saw Daniel sitting at the kitchen table with his head resting on his arms. "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"No, Spencer. I'm dying."

"Oh, come on, Daniel!"

With a little effort Daniel raised his head and looked at Reid. "Spencer, a couple years ago I had to have an I.V. put in because I was so dehydrated from a virus. I lost eight pounds in a few days. I was in the hospital that time and I think I felt better than this."

"Maybe you should go to the hospital this time, then."

"No thanks!"

"If you feel that bad…"

"No way," Daniel interrupted. "I'm going to practice today."

"What? You told me before you fell asleep you weren't going and that your coach was going to be upset. If you're that sick you should not only not go to practice, but also see a doctor."

"I hate hospitals, Spencer."

"No one likes hospitals. Go to your regular doctor, then."

"I don't like doctors either. Besides, she's out of town right now."

"Daniel, if it's food poisoning it could be dangerous."

With a little effort Daniel stood up. "Good. Maybe I'll die from it then and be out of my misery."

"That's not funny!"

"I wasn't laughing."

Reid shook his head as he watched Daniel walk into the bedroom. A few moments later he heard the shower start running. He walked into the kitchen and poured some cereal and milk into a bowl. By the time Daniel came back out of his bedroom Reid had eaten, taken a shower, dressed and was sitting in the living room with Prentiss and Morgan. "Geez," he commented. "I was starting to get worried!"

"Reid told us you weren't feeling well," Morgan said. "You look pale. Maybe you shouldn't go to the rink today."

"Derek, I would rather risk death than get yelled at in Russian today by my coach."

"But, won't she be yelling at you anyway if you're too sick to do everything?" Emily asked.

"I'll give her my sad eyed deer in the headlights look. Sometimes it makes her feel sorry for me and go easy for a while."

"What if it doesn't?"

"I'm pretty good at it. Although, she's also getting pretty good at seeing through it."

Morgan laughed as Reid shook his head and stood up. "Bye guys. I'm heading out. See you tonight, Daniel. If you're still alive, that is!"

"Thanks a lot, Spencer!"

Morgan laughed again. "Daniel, I have more good news for you. Hotch called me this morning. He's coming over again this afternoon to talk to you."

"Oh, great! Just what I need today. What do I get to do? Look at more pictures?"

"He didn't say. He just wanted me to let you know he's coming by."

"Great," Daniel sighed.

"Come on, Daniel. Hotch is okay!" Prentiss insisted.

"If you say so."

/\

"How did your training session go today?" Hotch asked Daniel, as the two sat down at the kitchen table.

"It was very tiring. I haven't felt well all day."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe you'll feel better tomorrow."

"I hope so. What can I do for you, Agent Hotchner?"

"You want to get right to the point, I see. First thing is I wanted to let you know that, although we did lift DNA from the envelopes your letters came in, there is no match to anyone in any of the national databases."

"You already analyzed the DNA? I thought that took weeks or something. Does no match mean they've never committed a crime or what?"

"Preliminary results can be obtained in as little as three to five days now. No match either means no criminal record or the crime committed did not require the criminal to provide a DNA sample."

"Do you need a key, Agent Hotchner?"

"Excuse me?"

"I made keys for Spencer and for Derek and Emily so they don't have to knock and someone doesn't have to go answer the door. You've been around here a lot, so I thought maybe you needed one also."

Hotch stared at him. "No thank you."

"What else did you want to tell me?"

"Based on interviews with all of the people who have been threatened, we believe whatever you all have in common happened sometime during the last two days you were in Bermuda. Those two days are the only two days everyone has in common since you didn't all leave or arrive on the same days. We need to ask you once again if you can remember anything that happened during that time period that might be significant."

"No, I told you already, I can't remember anything."

"Okay, I know you're not feeling well, so I'll leave it at that for now. Please let Morgan or Prentiss know if you think of anything."

"Okay, I will. Thank you."

/\

"Reid, what are you doing?" Morgan asked.

Reid looked up from the cushion he had been searching under. "I'm looking for something. I think I might have left it here when I went home this morning."

"What are you looking for? I can help you look."

"Uh, no that's okay. I can find it myself."

"Okay, kid, whatever. " He grinned. "So… Daniel told us you went out last night?"

"Yes, we did."

"And a pretty waitress gave you her phone number?"

Reid looked at him and sighed. "Yes, Morgan, she did. Something else for you to tease me about, I guess."

Morgan laughed. "So, did you call her yet?"

"I didn't have to. She called me this morning. Daniel had given her my cell phone number."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What happened, genius? What did you talk about? Are you going to see her?"

"It's none of your business what we talked about. And yes, I'm going to see her."

"When?"

Reid looked at Morgan in exasperation. "When I have time. I'm kind of busy right now. She understood that."

"Come on, kid. Don't let this job control your personal life."

Reid looked at him again. "I know you worry about me, Morgan. I appreciate that. We exchanged IM and email addresses. When we can arrange it, we'll get together. Until then we'll keep in touch. I only met her yesterday."

"Okay, okay!"

Prentiss came out of the bathroom and announced she was ready to go. "Daniel is in his bedroom sleeping," she added.

"Is he still sick?" Reid asked.

"Sick and exhausted."

"It's his own fault, really."

"Thank you so much for the sympathy," Daniel said, walking up behind Prentiss.

"You look like crap, Daniel!" Reid commented.

"Like I said, thank you so much, Spencer."

Prentiss grimaced and looked at Morgan. "Time for us to go, guys."

As soon as the door was closed and locked behind the two agents, Reid headed for the bedroom. "Spencer…"

"Not now, Daniel. I need to find something."

"But Spencer," Daniel said, following Reid down the hallway. Before he got to the bedroom door Reid came out and walked past him toward the living room.

"Okay, now was I in here last night?" he said, almost to himself.

"Spencer, listen to me."

"What?"

"Is this what you're looking for?" Reid looked at Daniel as he held out his precious coin. He reached out his hand and Daniel dropped it into his palm. "I found it on the living room floor a little while ago when we came back from the rink. I thought it was just a coin you used to do your magic tricks like you were showing me the other night. But it isn't, is it?"

Reid looked at him. "No, it isn't," he said quietly.

"That's a sobriety medallion, Spencer." Reid nodded. "So how long has it been?"

Reid looked down at the coin. "This is my one-year medallion. I've had it for a little over two years now, so I'm going on three and a half years." He looked over at Daniel. "I've never lost it before. It's always in my pocket."

"Congratulations," Daniel said, before turning around to head back toward his bedroom.

"Wait…aren't you going to ask me why I have this?"

"No, I'm not. I know what it represents, but it's none of my business. If you want to tell me about it, you will."

"For a few moments the two men looked at each other. Then, as Daniel started to turn away, Reid spoke. "It happened after a case."

Daniel turned back toward him. "I'm listening." He walked over to the kitchen table and sat down in one of the chairs.

Reid sat down at the opposite side of the table. He flipped the coin and turned it over in his hand repeatedly. "I was kidnapped by a serial killer we were chasing. It wasn't a pleasant experience, to say the least. And one of the things he did to me was to inject me with drugs several times. By the time the ordeal was over, I was addicted. I needed the drugs to forget."

"You were kidnapped by a serial killer?"

Reid nodded. "Yes," he said softly,

"What drug was it?"

"Dilaudid. But Hankel, that was the suspect's name, cut it with a psychedelic, so I hallucinated when I was injected."

"Spencer, addicts use Dilaudid as a heroin substitute."

"I know that, Daniel."

"How long were you on this stuff?"

"A few months. Maybe four or so."

"Your team members know about this?"

"Rossi wasn't around then. The others know about my kidnapping. In fact, they had to watch some of what happened to me via a live feed. They know I was using afterward, though no one ever accused me. They know I quit, but they don't know how because I did it on my own, and they don't know about Beltway Clean Cops. You're the first person outside of that group I've ever told."

"I told you already, Spencer. I'm a good listener. I'm listening now, for as long as you want to keep talking about it."

"Thank you, Daniel," Reid said softly.

/\

Reid and Daniel were still sitting at the kitchen table the next morning when Morgan and Prentiss arrived. "Hey guys," Reid said, standing up from the table and stretching.

Morgan looked at him. "You guys were up all night?"

Daniel stood up. "Yes. We've been up all night talking. I'm a good listener, he's a good listener. We've been listening to each other."

"How about that, Reid found somebody to ramble on to who rambles right back," Morgan laughed.

"Okay. And they're a little punch drunk, I would say," Prentiss commented.

"Right, punch drunk. And we talked about all kinds of things. And we're both so tired we're punch drunk just like Emily said," Daniel pointed out. "And it's a good thing my coach gave me the day off because I would be even more useless today than I was yesterday."

"And you were pretty useless yesterday," Prentiss laughed.

"Too bad for Reid, though, because Hotch wants him to come by the BAU after he leaves here."

"Why?"

"I don't know; when he called he didn't say. He only said I should tell you he wanted you to stop by before you went home."

"Great. I'm taking a shower and going to bed, and you get to go talk to Agent Hotchner." Daniel patted Reid on the shoulder. "I think I'm going to like my day more than you like yours."

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Reid knocked on the door to Hotch's office. Hotch looked up and said, "Come in, Reid. Have a seat." He gestured toward a chair across from his desk.

Reid looked from Hotch to Rossi, who was sitting in a chair to the side. "Is something wrong, Hotch?"

"Reid, the night before last, did you and Daniel Meier go out to a restaurant for dinner?"

"Yes, we did. Why?"

"And then you went on to a bar?" Rossi asked.

"I didn't drink. I was on duty."

"And Daniel became sick?"

"Yes, I had to help him out to the car. He only had two drinks so we figured it was food poisoning, from the Chinese restaurant we had gone to. Well, he did anyway. I tried to get him to either go to a doctor or the hospital; but he can be pretty stubborn. He wouldn't go."

"And you didn't think it was necessary to let me or Rossi or Morgan know he might have been poisoned?"

"You mean deliberately?"

"Reid, Daniel Meier has at least three stalkers, one of which has made death threats toward him. In addition he also has been threatened in the murder case. Someone could have tried to poison him deliberately," Rossi said.

"I didn't think…"

"That's the problem, Reid, you didn't think. And you should have thought." He leaned forward. "What it all boils down to is you're off the security detail."

Reid stared at him. "What?"

"You're off the detail. Rossi will take over for you tonight. Tomorrow you will come into the office and work on files and paperwork unless I tell you to do something else."

"Hotch…"

"Go home." When Reid opened his mouth as if to say something else, Hotch repeated, "Go home, Reid."

Reid stood up, grabbed his messenger bag and walked out of the office. Without even looking at his desk he headed down the hallway and to the elevator. When the door didn't open immediately upon his pressing the button he headed for the stairwell. "Reid!" Garcia called, spotting her friend. "Hey, Reid!" She stared after him, confused as to why he didn't respond.

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A/N: I had such a hard time with this chapter. I actually went ahead and wrote Chapter Eight before I finished this one.

A/N; .

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