Chapter 3: A Family's Worst Nightmare

When Reid came back into the waiting room, Conan was pacing the length room, while Maeve attempted to distract herself by flipping through a magazine. He took his seat next to her and absentmindedly peered over at the article on the page she was looking at. Not that he considered last year's celebrity hairstyles to be of any particular interest, he was just looking for anything but their current situation to think about.

"You called the others didn't you?" Maeve asked.

"Just Emily."

"And?"

"And she told me to take all the time I needed."

"You didn't mention to her that you think this might be…"

"Might be the work of an unsub? No, I didn't. There's no point freaking everyone out until we know for sure something other than the obvious actually happened." He told her.

Maeve could tell, that as much as he was trying to pretend he wasn't sure, Spencer's mind was made up. She wasn't a profiler but she'd never needed to be to get a pretty good idea what he was thinking and feeling. He was trying to appear calm, but in all honesty, he was a complete wreck. His eyes darted around the room every few seconds, he was playing with his watch as if somehow messing with it would make time go faster, and his left leg was bobbing up and down at a steady pace. The leg thing was what profilers like him called a tell. This one signified nervousness, impatience, or worry.

"You say that, but you're pretty sure there's more to it than that, aren't you?"

He nodded.

That's when the heard the elevator ding, followed by the familiar sound of platform heels on the linoleum floor. A moment later, Garcia walked into the room.

"Garcia…" They said in unison.

"Hey… I was with Em when you called her. Is she ok? Do you guys need anything? What can I do?" She asked as she hugged each of them.

"We don't know anything yet," Maeve replied.

"She's still in surgery and we're waiting for the results of another blood test," Reid added.

"What happened?" She asked.

The two terrified parents shook their heads.

"She was at practice, she was ok, and then she just…wasn't…" Reid explained.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked.

"Well, actually there is one thing," Maeve began, "I left Isabel with my dad at our house but, Conan should go home too; and neither of us is going anywhere until we know for sure she's ok."

"Of course, I can totally take him home…"

"Mom. I'm not leaving." Conan piped up in a determined voice.

"Conan your mom's right," Reid told him. "I know you''re worried, we are too, but there's nothing you can do for Evi right now. What you can do, is be there for Isabel. Right now, she might not understand all of what's going on, but I''m sure she could really use her big brother right now. Do this for us, Conan, please."

Reid watched as his son stared back at him, he could see in his eyes and in his body language how torn he was. He didn't want to leave Evi, but bringing up Isabel, and alluding to how scared she might be, had struck a nerve. He watched as Conan stood there, looking from him to Garcia and back, his whole body shifting slightly in each direction as he did so. Finally, he sighed.

"Ok, Dad. I'll do it for Isabel, but the second you hear anything…"

"We'll call you, we promise." He replied.

Conan nodded, and despite himself, hugged each of his parents tightly.

Garcia watched all of this in silence, a single tear dripping down her cheek. "Alright, come on Buddy, grab your stuff and let's hit the road." She told him, then she turned to Reid and Maeve. "If you guys need anything else, just ask. We're all behind you, the whole team, no matter what. We're here to help." She assured them. They each nodded gratefully in reply but said nothing.

Conan grabbed his backpack and left with his godmother.

Two hours later, Garcia had just finished playing checkers at the dark, oak dining table with Isabel when she noticed that Conan wasn't at the kitchen counter where he'd been when they'd started playing. For a moment she was terrified, but then she heard him moving around upstairs in his room, she was relieved, but she decided to go up and check on him anyway.

"I'll be right back." She told Isabel. "I''m just gonna go see what your brother's doing.

She climbed the narrow wooden staircase to the second floor of Reid's house. At the top of the stairs there was a hallway with four doors to go through, having not been in this part of the house since Conan and Evina were infants, she wasn't entirely sure which room was his on first glance, but then she saw the giant microscope decal on the otherwise plain, wooden door on the left side at the end of the hall, and decided that one was probably a good bet.

She knocked on the door. "Conan, you in there Kiddo? It's Penelope."

"Come in." He told her.

When Garcia opened the door, she found him sitting in the swivel chair at his desk. His computer was on but, whatever was up on the screen, he didn't seem to be paying much attention to it. Instead, he had his phone out, texting someone.

"What's up?"

"Nothing, just, science homework. We're supposed to take the last five generations of our own families and try to use that to inform Punit Squares about hair color, eye color, and blood type…" He replied.

It was the way he said it that told Garcia he wasn't nearly as calm as he pretended to be. Conan had always adored science, especially everything having to do with biology. The project he described should have been better than a video game to him and yet, he was acting like it was a chore, then it hit her.

"Who are you texting?"

"Evina… she should've been out of surgery almost an hour ago but she's not answering. Why isn't she answering?" He asked, sounding frustrated and on the edge of a breakdown.

"Ok, we need to talk, your bio project can wait. Come have a seat." Garcia replied, sitting down on his bed on the opposite side of the room.

She looked around the room while she waited for him to realize that she wasn't going anywhere until they talked about this. The walls were painted a sky blue, and covered in science-related posters featuring the periodic table, a telescope, a microscope, a DNA double-helix, along with quotes from various famous scientists. The bed she was sitting on was located against the same wall the door was on and had a plain, navy-blue comforter on it. Next to the bed sat a small oak nightstand, with matching bookshelves beside that. On the other side of the room, sat a keyboard. The desk and nightstand were all covered in knickknacks that gave the room the cluttered appearance of a masculine version of Garcia's own office, despite this, there was an impression of neatness. Everything had its place and not one spec was out of place when not in use.

Conan stared at her, then, realizing that she wasn't going to give up, came and sat beside her.

"Ok, what do you wanna talk about?" He asked.

"Evina. She's gonna be ok. You know that right?" She asked.

"Then why isn't she answering my texts?" He asked. "What if something went wrong during surgery and she's way worse? Or…or…"

"If something like that had happened, your parents would have called. Trust me, we'd know. Actually, I haven't heard anything from either one of them since we left the hospital." She told him. "Besides, even if she was awake, that doesn't necessarily mean she has her phone on her. Where was it when all this started?" She asked.

"We're not supposed to have them out during class or at practice, and there are no pockets in the girls' version of our school uniform so, in her backpack probably, her backpack, which is in Dad's car…"

"See? You're freaking out about nothing. I promise you, everything will be alright." She assured him, wrapping her godson in a gentle, reassuring hug. She was half expecting him to free himself in about thirty seconds, but instead, he returned her embrace. "Wow…" She said after about two solid minutes. "I never pegged you for much of a hugger."

"I'm a thirteen-year-old boy. I do have a reputation to uphold, but right now no one's watching. I'll let it slide this time."

That made Garcia smile. "You got it kid, and I promise, it'll be our little secret." She said, giving him an extra squeeze.

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Reid was pacing nervously around the waiting room like a caged animal.

"It's been almost three hours." He said to no one in particular.

"Spencer…" Maeve said.

"They said the surgery was supposed to take two hours. It's been two hours and fifty-seven minutes," he replied.

Maeve didn't say anything, she just got up from her chair and hugged him tightly. "I know you're worried, I am too, but freaking out about it won't fix it or make any of this go any faster. I don't know why it's taking longer than expected, but right now we have to trust that they know what they're doing."

"Excuse me." Said a voice behind them. They turned to see the doctor standing at the edge of the room, with a grave expression on his face. "I''m looking for the parents of Evina Reid." He told them.

"You found us," Maeve replied.

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the surgery went rather well. The only reason it took longer than expected is that her body had tried to contain the infection by forming an abscess further up in her digestive track and we had to remove that as well, which we didn't plan on. Somehow it didn't show up on the CT scan, anyway, she's stable, she's in recovery now and we're working on getting her, her own room." He told them.

Maeve breathed a sigh of relief, but Spencer wasn't ready to let down his guard just yet. "What's the bad news?" He asked.

"Well, you suggested we order an IN1C6 panel, and you were right to be concerned. We found a substance called INC4, which is a very potent inflammatory toxin. Medical researchers use it to induce conditions like hers in lab animals so that they can test different treatment options, but they're considerably less sensitive to it, in humans, it's highly toxic. It can stay in the body for weeks because the human body doesn't quite know how to deal with it, it ends up getting treated similarly to alcohol except it's actually harder on the liver." He explained. "Anyway, my point is that this stuff is only approved for use in secure lab facilities, research labs and biotech companies, your daughter wasn't exposed to this accidentally, she was poisoned."

Reid was aghast, his worst fears had been realized. For a moment, he couldn't breathe. His heart began racing again, and his throat seemed to tighten in on itself. "H-how could this have happened?" He managed to choke out.

"She most likely ingested it mixed in with something she ate, and based on the amount of it still in her blood, either the concentration was pretty high or she got a massive dose."

At his words, Reid saw tears well up in Maeve's eyes, but desperate to hang on to her composure, she said nothing.

This couldn't be happening, but it was, and there was only one thing to do.

"Thank you, doctor." He replied. "When can we see her?"

"Once we get her settled in her own room. It should only be about forty-five more minutes. When she's ready I'll have someone take you to her." He replied.

They both nodded, and the doctor left the room.

Less than thirty seconds after he left, Reid had his phone out again, his suspicions had proven correct, it was time to stop waiting around and call in the cavalry.

"Alright, alright, I-I'm gonna call Emily back and tell her what happened," Spencer said shakily.

But before he could dial Emily's number, Maeve put her arms around him in an embrace that seemed as much about seeking comfort as giving it. "Hey… Look at me," Maeve ordered, forcing him to look directly into her eyes, "calm down, she's gonna be ok, whoever did this, if they wanted to kill her they failed, she's gonna be ok, and you know exactly what you have to do now. Everything is gonna be alright." She was trying to sound like she believed what she was saying, but her voice was shaking, and Spencer could feel her warm wet tears falling onto the shoulder of the vest he was wearing.

"You're right, you're right." He replied as Maeve picked up her things.

"Now, the second the others find out about this, Garcia's gonna be called back to the office. So, I'm gonna go home to keep an eye on and explain all this to Conan and Isabel. I'm leaving right now, so you can tell Garcia that I'm on my way." He told him, giving him one last hug and kissing him quickly, but passionately. Then, she made her way to the elevator and left.

Once she was gone, Reid dialed Emily's number.

Emily was back at her apartment watching the home and garden channel when her phone started buzzing on the coffee table. She answered it immediately without even looking at who it was.

"This is Prentiss…" she said. Then she heard Reid's voice on the other end, he was talking a mile a minute, she couldn't understand most of what he was saying. "Reid, what's wrong? Slow down… Oh my God what?!