Chapter 30: A Spencer Reid Story
Chapter 30
Spencer sat staring at his book case for some time. The withdraws were hitting him really hard today and it was getting difficult to ignore them. He was violently shaking to the point where he couldn’t even hold his coffee cup without spilling it all over himself. The headaches were brutal to the point where he called in sick yesterday to work. His head just constantly pounded and any type of light was too much for his eyes to handle. He had taken some Excedrin but so far the hammering hadn’t let up. He exhaled a sigh and laid back on his couch, staring up at the white washed ceiling. Eventually he lulled into a dozing state of sleep.
“Spence, we need to talk.”
Spencer looked up, a stern JJ staring him down. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
“JJ, not now, I’m very tired and have a head ache.” He closed his eyes again and shooed her away. She sat down on the edge of the couch next to him.
“No Spencer, now. We need to talk about Cat.”
“What about her? Why does it have to be now?” Spencer groaned, peeking at JJ with one eye closed. She put her hand lightly on his.
“You need to make it official, before it’s too late Spence.”
“Before it’s too late? Too late for what?”
He closed his eyes and then opened them again, and to his horror they were both covered in a pool of ruby blood. She placed the stub that used to be her arm on Spencer’s chest.
“Before it’s too late Spence.”
He screamed out and thrashed around and suddenly he sat up, wide awake on his couch, sweat pouring from his forehead. He licked his dry lips and looked around furiously. His apartment was dark and quiet.
“It was just a dream….. it was just a dream.” It was obvious to him that the guilt of losing JJ and giving in to dilaudid had jumbled up his mind and gave him some awful dreams. He stood up on shaky knees and grabbed himself a glass of water. He smoothed down his hair which already seemed to be matted down with sweat. “Actually more like a nightmare…” he said in a whisper to himself as he made his way back to his couch. Before he could sit down there was a knock on the door.
“Reid…. Are you in there?” A light and airy voice followed the few knocks and Spencer suddenly realized that it was Garcia. He stood up and opened the door, greeting a relieved Penelope. “Hi Reid! I brought you some breakfast muffins because I heard you weren’t feeling well. You’re lucky that we had a lapse in cases this week and that you could take off. How are you feeling?” Spencer threw her a weak smile motioning for her to come inside the door.
“I’ve been better Garcia. Just some headaches that won’t ease up. Decided to rest yesterday and I feel a bit better today. Thank you for the muffins, you didn’t have to do that. What kind are they?” He sorted through the basket, picking out what appeared to be a fruit filled one.
“Oh I’m so glad to hear you’re feeling better, and there are a lot of different kinds, like apple cinnamon, orange, raisin…” He listened to her rattle off the various muffins in the basket as he took a bite of the orange one. The flavor of citrus rushed into his mouth and was quite moist.
“These are great Garcia. Thank you. Did you know muffins are usually a staple food for breakfast but they are usually high in fat and carbohydrates, sometimes surpassing even a donut?” It was an awkward silence as Spencer chewed his food and Garcia twiddled her thumbs, not really sure what else to say. She had been worried about him, in fact the whole team had been worried after Emily had said something about Reid’s constant shaking.
“Well I’m glad you like them. I have to get back to work now because it’s our lunch hour and I promised the others I would report back as soon as possible on your well-being.” She stood up and Spencer laughed.
“Is Morgan super worried about me?” he laughed, thinking about Derek asking about him. Garcia smiled and nodded.
“You rest up Reid, and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow. Tell Cat I said hi. I have to go before it’s too late.” She grabbed her things and Spencer froze mid-bite.
“What did you say Garcia?”
She stared at him, suddenly aware of the distant look in his eyes “I… I said I have to go before it’s too late. You know…. Before I’m late at getting back?” She pointed to his clock on the wall, letting him know she only had 15minutes to get back to the BAU. He finished his bite and nodded in understanding, a little freaked out at her choice of words. Soon he was left again with his basket of muffins and his thoughts.
“And here we see a tumor pressed up against the amygdala of this 32 year old brain. A tumor is also known as neoplasm and about 20% of brain tumors are meningiomas or encased in the meninges of the brain and skull.” Cat typed furiously on her laptop trying to get down every word her professor said. She wanted to make sure she was well prepared for their test coming up and she knew that her professor favored abnormalities of the brain. She peered over at Aislinn who raised up her eyebrow when their eyes met. Aislinn was able to just listen to a lecture and then remember it later. She was an auditory learner. Cat let out an exasperated sigh as she continued to type, as if her fingers were on fire. “Well that’s all we have time for today class. Make sure you each meet with your groups to go over the one case study you wish to present that has abnormal psychology and neuroscience implications as well. Have a good day.” The students began to pack away their things and Aislinn made her way over to Cat.
“Talk about a rough lecture. We still have to find a case study. I searched for hours last night. It’s a lot harder than you think.” Aislinn bit into her green apple as she spoke, waiting for Cat to pack her things away.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I searched for a while too and couldn’t find anything. Maybe I’ll ask Spencer and see if he knows of any cases. I’m sure he has ran into a few. Plus I really think you guys need to officially meet and hang out. I’ve been dating him for almost over 6 months now and I don’t think you two have formally met or hung out.” Cat put on her back pack, ready to go to her next class.
Aislinn nodded but also seemed uncomfortable. “I know what you mean Cat, but it’s just awkward since it’s 3 of us. I mean, I could always invite a date but-“
“Well if you feel more comfortable that way than that’s fine but I really want my best friend to really get to know my boyfriend.” Cat looked at her pleadingly and all she could do is smile.
“Well what did you have in mind?” Aislinn threw away her apple core as they walked toward their next class, Psychology of Antisocial Behavior.
“I’ll think of something. Something different… Something fun. No more stuffy dinners for me. I’m getting fat.” Cat laughed, going over ideas she had been thinking about to do with Spencer for a while now. Suddenly her chocolate brown eyes caught sight of a brightly neon colored flyer outside their classroom door. “Hey Aislinn, how about this?” She grabbed the flyer and held it up for her to see and Aislinn’s eyes lit up.
“Yeah! A carnival would be perfect!” The carnival was in town, a perfect night for ferris wheels, cotton candy, bumper cars and more. Or that’s what the flyer said anyway.










