The next morning, Emily woke up early and walked out to the living room, turning off the alarm on Spencer's phone. She also jotted down a note for him for when he did wake up, letting him know that it's okay he overslept, because they didn't need to go in. Hoping that would work, she went back to her room, curling up under the blankets and getting back to sleep.

She was woken up a half hour later by the smell of coffee. She raised an eyebrow, walking out to her kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"Making some coffee before work?" he said, as if it was obvious.

"…Didn't you get my note?"

He nodded, holding it up. "I did, I'm just choosing to ignore it."

She groaned, leaning on the counter. "Reid, we don't need to go in. This means that we get to catch up on sleep. I don't know about you, but I count that as a small victory, considering what we do for a living."

He shook his head. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I can't just sit here and wait for him to confess what he did to me."

"Reid, trust me, I know it's hard. When I was at Interpol, something happened to me, and I wanted that bastard to admit it and suffer. Me being there didn't do them any favors and just made it harder to get a confession. You intimidated him yesterday when you interrogated him. You showed him how badly he messed up. Now you need to trust that your co-workers are doing the right thing."

He bit down on his lip. "I just want this to be over."

She reached over, rubbing his back, and considered it a small victory when he didn't pull away from her. "And it will be. I told Derek that the one condition of us staying home is hourly updates on what's going on. So, what do you say? Foreign films and board games?"

He smiled slightly, nodding. "Though I have to warn you, I will win at Scrabble."

"Oh, I'm sure."

While they were watching Solaris, a film entirely in Russian, Emily's phone started ringing. She paused the movie once she saw Spencer's head shoot up and answered.

"Yeah, JJ?"

JJ sighed. "How is he? How'd he do last night?"

"So it's going that bad, huh?" she asked, pushing herself off the couch and walking to the kitchen, taking out a water bottle.

"Oh, he's right there, gotcha. Derek told me you expected hourly updates. I thought you'd like to know that while he hasn't caved under the pressure yet, he's definitely showing signs of struggle. Hotch thinks we might be able to break him today."

She exhaled, relieved. "The sooner I can get Reid back to work, the better. He was up at 8:00 this morning making coffee and expecting me to get out of bed."

Spencer looked up at her. "Actually, it was 8:15."

JJ laughed softly. "Enjoy. If we're still up to this tomorrow, he can stay at my place. The bruising is down enough that Henry won't be too scared."

"Sounds great. Let me know if anything else happens?"

"You bet."

She hung up and turned to Spencer, holding out a water to him. He took it, taking a sip. "Anything yet?"

She nodded. "He's showing definite signs of breaking, and Hotch thinks it's going to happen today."

"And we're going to get another update?"

"Probably in the next hour." She reached up in her closet, taking out a box. "Can you multitask, Doctor Reid?"

He looked over. "Enjoying a great foreign film and beating you at a word game? Definitely."

She shook her head, setting it up and pulling her tiles out. "Somebody's cocky."

He went to shrug, but stopped himself. "It's not cocky if it's the truth."

She laughed to herself, glad to finally see the light-hearted Spencer Reid again.

Emily scanned her letters, chewing on her lip before setting some down. "A-b-o-u-t. About, seven points."

Spencer sighed. "If that's what you want to be proud of," he started, writing down her score and setting the pad down, scanning his own letters.

She put a hand over them. "Whoa, what?"

He sat up, eyeing the board. "Well, about is a good choice, but the word 'some' is already on the board from your last turn, and there are four blank spaces without any overlapping letters to ruin your word. You could've very easily made the word 'autosome', which would be only ten points, but you'd have the triple word score on the end which would give you thirty, and you'd have the double letter score on the 'o', which would be enough to give you the lead." He shrugged slightly, wincing. "But no, 'about' is a good choice."

She shook her head. "I've said it before, I'll say it again. There's a lot to hate about you, Doctor Reid."

"This won't help," he started, setting down his letters.

She gasped. "Oxygen? You seriously just had an x-y-g-e-n sitting on your slate?"

He nodded slightly. "And with the double word score? Hello, thirty-four points."

She shook her head. "The next game won't involve logic. Then maybe I'll have a shot."

"Good luck."

Spencer reached over on the third hour, answering his phone. "Hello?"

"…Are you and Emily still watching that Russian movie?"

"It's Solaris and it's five hours long. We still have a couple of hours left."

"…And that's why I'm glad you spent the night with her."

He mock laughed, rolling his eyes. "What is it?"

"Have you taken your meds lately?"

"Yes, mother."

Emily raised an eyebrow, glancing up at him. "Garcia?"

He shook his head. "Derek."

She laughed softly as Derek responded. "Very funny, kid."

He leaned back on the couch. "Do you have something for me?"

"… I thought you'd like to know that he admitted to attacking you."

His eyes widened. "He what?"

"With his lawyer sitting right next to him, he told me that it was his idea to attack you."

He swallowed, exhaling. "Play the tape."

"…Excuse me?"

"I-I need to hear it, so I know this is over. Please."

Derek walked over to the video, rewinding it. "You're sure about this, Pretty Boy?"

"Derek," he warned.

He sighed and pressed play as Spencer put his phone on speaker, swallowing.

"Everything okay?" Emily asked.

He nodded. "He confessed," he said softly, waiting for the tape to play.

"Did you attack a federal agent?" Derek asked. There was a long pause and he groaned, asking again. "Did you attack a federal agent?" Greeted by silence, he hit his fist against the table. "I'm not playing games here. You're going to jail, that's inevitable. If you just admit what you did, it'll be a hell of a lot easier on you. If you don't tell me what you did to one of my co-workers right now, I will get a polygraph in here, and I will get the answers I'm looking for."

Emily reached her hand over, squeezing Spencer's. He squeezed back, taking a deep breath and sighing.

"Yeah, I did it."

By Derek's tone of voice, Spencer could tell he was getting more and more furious. "Why?"

"He was an easy target. We knew he'd be there."

"How did you know?"

"Usually if he goes missing for a few days, he comes back late at night or early in the morning."

Derek scoffed, disgusted. "So you hand-selected him to attack?"

"What can I say? He wouldn't put up much of a fight."

Spencer bit down on his lip, squeezing his eyes shut and squeezing Emily's hand.

"Why did you think that?"

He laughed. "Look at the guy. Does he look like he could hit?"

"But he had a gun. And the second he shot, you ran away scared."

"Anyone with half a brain will run when you hear a gun shooting near your head."

"Why did you make this personal? Why did you not only attack him, but go to his apartment?"

"If I was going after him again, I didn't want him to shoot me."

Spencer heard the chair slide out, and knew that Derek officially lost his temper. "So, what, you were going to shoot him?"

"If it had to come to that."

"Get him out of my sight."

Derek turned it off, picking up his phone. "Spencer, are you okay, kid?"

He sniffed, wiping his eyes and nodding. "I'm fine. Thank you." He exhaled shakily, biting his lip and shooting up from the couch, walking to the bathroom and closing the door.

Emily picked up the phone. "Thanks, Derek."

"Is he okay?"

She sighed. "He had a really bad panic attack last night, I think he's having another one. I've got to go."

"Hotch wants the team to go out to dinner tonight, sort of so we can put all of this behind us and get a new start. Are you two in?"

She looked over at the bathroom door. "I can try like hell to get him there, but that's all I can guarantee. Listen, I've got to check on him. Text me the details for tonight?"

"Will do."

She hung up the phone and sighed, hoping she'd be able to get him out of this.

She walked to the bathroom, knocking softly. "Reid? Everything okay?" When there was no response, she sighed. "I'm coming in."

Once again greeted with silence, she reached down, opening the door and walking in. She saw Spencer curled into a ball in the corner, panting and struggling to catch his breath. She felt her heart cringe and sat in front of him, taking his hands. "Reid?"

He sniffed. "I deserved it."

She shook her head, pushing his hair back. "No, you didn't."

He took a shaky breath. "He chose me. He wanted to attack me because I'm weak-"

"You are not weak," she snapped, squeezing his hand. "Do you hear me? You are not weak. A weak person wouldn't have thought to reach for his gun and scare them off. A weak person wouldn't be able to give full statements. A weak person wouldn't talk about it time and time again because he knows it'd bring an end closer. I've known you for several years now, and the Spencer Reid I know is the last thing I think of when I hear the word 'weak'."

He took another breath, exhaling and squeezing her hand back. "He wanted to attack me-"

"And he underestimated you by a long shot. Because of you, he's going to be in jail and never hurt anybody ever again."

He looked up at her, tears streaming down his cheeks. "He didn't only take my possessions. He took my sense of safety. I can't… I can't go back to that apartment knowing that he invaded my privacy and tried finding me there. It doesn't matter that he's going to be in jail forever. I still have the memory of him wanting to hurt me twice."

With no more words, she leaned in, wrapping her arms around him. She rocked him back and forth, rubbing circles on his back and humming softly as he got everything out. She knew how hard it was for him to show emotion around his co-workers, and knew better than to continue arguing with him. Instead, she sat there with him while he got a much needed cry out of his system.

When she was sure he was done, she pulled back, rubbing his back. "Better?"

He nodded slightly, wiping his eyes and sighing. "I'm s-"

"If the next word out of your word is 'sorry', Spencer Reid, I swear-"

She couldn't help but feel relieved when she was greeted with a smile and a small laugh. "Right, sorry."

She shook her head. "You really are something else." She got up, holding out a hand.

He pulled himself up, sighing. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Well, take a shower or clean yourself up, and we're going out to dinner with the team to get our minds off of this, and you're going to continue to stay with someone on the team while you look for an apartment where you can feel safe."

"I don't want to impose-"

"And you won't be imposing. We're a family, and a family takes care of each other in times of need. Until a time when you're ready to be on your own again, we're not going to let you be alone. Is that clear?"

He nodded slightly. "Is dinner on Rossi?"

"Isn't it always?"

He smiled slightly. "Just give me a few minutes and I'll be ready."

She ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it, before walking out and closing the door behind her.

Her phone went off and she walked to her bedroom, answering it. "Hey, PG."

"I've been calling him for the past twenty minutes and not getting an answer. How's my Boy Wonder? Is he sleeping? Is he doing okay?"

She eyed the bathroom door, remembering the events of the last hour. "He's fine, he's just taking a shower now."

"Derek said that asshat finally admitted what he did…"

"And he said he chose to go after Reid both times because he's weak."

She gasped. "Oh he is so lucky he's already going to be somebody's bitch in prison, or I'd go to his cell and beat him until he's unrecognizable."

"…You just snapped one of your pens in two, didn't you?"

"Yes, and it was the pink feathery one!"

She laughed softly. "Never change, PG."

"Trust me, I'm not interested. Ever. Are you guys coming to dinner?"

"We'll probably be there in a half hour."

"See you then!"

"…You made him a gift basket, didn't you?"

"…Just a little one."

She smirked, shaking her head. "Of course. Any word from Hotch?"

"He's been quiet about the whole situation, but I'm pretty sure he's doing Reid's psych evaluation tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? How the hell is he supposed to pass it with everything that happened today?"

"I don't know, sweetie. But apparently, he has no authority here. Strauss ordered it, considering her best team spent the last week working on this case. She wants him to be completely level-headed before coming back to the team."

She rolled her eyes. "So basically, she wants to have to suspend him for a few weeks while he sits at home, thinks about everything that happened to him, and deals with overwhelming anxiety because he not only has to do that, but miss work as well?"

"Trust me, I'm trying here, and so is Hotch, but nothing's working. You're not going to tell him, are you?"

She chewed on her cheek. "I'm not sure yet." She checked the clock. "I'll see you in a half hour, PG."

"Take care of him."

"I promise."

She hung up, groaning, willing the next few days to be a lot easier than she was anticipating.