(no subject)
Title - A Problem Shared
Fandom - Criminal Minds
Characters - Reid/Hotch friendship, Reid/Garcia friendship mentioned
Rating/Spoilers - 12 for implied situations/None
Disclaimer - Not mine. I cannot say that enough.
Prompt - "the brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming"
The lights were flickering so much it was giving him a headache. It had been hard enough trying to track this guy down. It took three states, 19 months and over a thousand police officers to even get this close again. He was not about to give up now. Not when he had her voice running through his head.
Jaina Brooks. She was only 11 years old. Taken from school when the UnSub, Marcus Nemlin, pretended to be her cousin giving her a ride home. She was the last victim before they lost him. This was the fourth, and longest time, he'd gotten away. He can still remember the sound of fear in her small voice as he heard it over the speaker phone.
"Help me................please.........don't let him hurt me.......................please!"
They find her body four hours later with no sign of Nemlin. After that he never stayed in the same place longer than he needed to. All they had was this trail of bodies all over the country. All those girls. All beaten. All drugged. All raped. All dead. With nothing stopping it from happening again. Nothing at all. They'd failed. They were useless and helpless to stop him.
"Reid!" Spencer was brought back to reality by the sound of Hotch's voice.
"Huh?" He quickly realised he was on the jet and Hotch was looking very concerned.
"Are you all right? You were talking in your sleep" He saw the look in Reid's eyes. "Another one?" Reid nodded.
"Jaina Brooks." Hotch froze. He remembered how that had ended. It was bad. Two officers fatally shot, another 12 wounded thanks to the booby traps in his house and car and Nemlin's last victim was in pieces, her newborn baby lying in her blood having been ripped out of her mother.
"I can't get it out my head. Her voice, the baby, any of it."
"I don't think any of us will be able to."
"I find that hard to believe. Everyone else seems fine."
"Believe me when I say they're not. That first day, I must have seen everybody but you in my office. All of them upset. It was the first time I've seen Rossi upset in 7 years. Prentiss wanted to quit. JJ couldn't speak. Neither could Garcia. Morgan wanted Nemlin alive again just so he could kill him all over again."
"Sounds like Morgan."
"We all get those from time to time, Reid. The best thing to do is talk about it."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Who do you talk to? Everyone seems to come to you but you never go to anyone."
"I'm not important right now. I find my own way."
"Since when is the Unit Chief of the BAU not important. Hotch, we all have to look to you to know what to do at one time or another on every case we do. You've been a shoulder to cry on, a pillar of strength for all of us. Especially me after Gideon left. We're not just colleagues any more, Hotch. We're family."
"Reid, really I'll be fine."
"You just said the best thing to do is talk. You woke me up. We both know I'm not likely to sleep again tonight and there is" he looks at his watch "another three hours before we land. So talk."
Hotch smiled at Reid and laughed a little bit. "If it wasn't for the socks, I would have sworn you were Garcia in disguise just then."
"She's been helping me a lot. She told me that I need to get out of my shell a lot more and since I can't seem to do it right, I have to do it her way."
"So...do you want to put the coffee on or shall I?"
"I've tasted your coffee. I'll do it."
Fandom - Criminal Minds
Characters - Reid/Hotch friendship, Reid/Garcia friendship mentioned
Rating/Spoilers - 12 for implied situations/None
Disclaimer - Not mine. I cannot say that enough.
Prompt - "the brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming"
The lights were flickering so much it was giving him a headache. It had been hard enough trying to track this guy down. It took three states, 19 months and over a thousand police officers to even get this close again. He was not about to give up now. Not when he had her voice running through his head.
Jaina Brooks. She was only 11 years old. Taken from school when the UnSub, Marcus Nemlin, pretended to be her cousin giving her a ride home. She was the last victim before they lost him. This was the fourth, and longest time, he'd gotten away. He can still remember the sound of fear in her small voice as he heard it over the speaker phone.
"Help me................please.........don't let him hurt me.......................please!"
They find her body four hours later with no sign of Nemlin. After that he never stayed in the same place longer than he needed to. All they had was this trail of bodies all over the country. All those girls. All beaten. All drugged. All raped. All dead. With nothing stopping it from happening again. Nothing at all. They'd failed. They were useless and helpless to stop him.
"Reid!" Spencer was brought back to reality by the sound of Hotch's voice.
"Huh?" He quickly realised he was on the jet and Hotch was looking very concerned.
"Are you all right? You were talking in your sleep" He saw the look in Reid's eyes. "Another one?" Reid nodded.
"Jaina Brooks." Hotch froze. He remembered how that had ended. It was bad. Two officers fatally shot, another 12 wounded thanks to the booby traps in his house and car and Nemlin's last victim was in pieces, her newborn baby lying in her blood having been ripped out of her mother.
"I can't get it out my head. Her voice, the baby, any of it."
"I don't think any of us will be able to."
"I find that hard to believe. Everyone else seems fine."
"Believe me when I say they're not. That first day, I must have seen everybody but you in my office. All of them upset. It was the first time I've seen Rossi upset in 7 years. Prentiss wanted to quit. JJ couldn't speak. Neither could Garcia. Morgan wanted Nemlin alive again just so he could kill him all over again."
"Sounds like Morgan."
"We all get those from time to time, Reid. The best thing to do is talk about it."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Who do you talk to? Everyone seems to come to you but you never go to anyone."
"I'm not important right now. I find my own way."
"Since when is the Unit Chief of the BAU not important. Hotch, we all have to look to you to know what to do at one time or another on every case we do. You've been a shoulder to cry on, a pillar of strength for all of us. Especially me after Gideon left. We're not just colleagues any more, Hotch. We're family."
"Reid, really I'll be fine."
"You just said the best thing to do is talk. You woke me up. We both know I'm not likely to sleep again tonight and there is" he looks at his watch "another three hours before we land. So talk."
Hotch smiled at Reid and laughed a little bit. "If it wasn't for the socks, I would have sworn you were Garcia in disguise just then."
"She's been helping me a lot. She told me that I need to get out of my shell a lot more and since I can't seem to do it right, I have to do it her way."
"So...do you want to put the coffee on or shall I?"
"I've tasted your coffee. I'll do it."