Agents with Kids (Spencer Reid x reader)

Part 33

Your phone is eerily silent on your drive. Normally, Garcia would ping you with a slightly ridiculous amount of updates when a member of the team steps out. She's either too busy, or she's in the dark too. The thought makes you grip the steering wheel harder. You can't begin to predict how this case is going to go. Two train lines he might attack, and you don't have the first clue which he'd pick. Morgan is a better choice to help right now.

You just have to hope that Hotch thinks so too. If he thinks you abandoned the case...

It's not a train of thought you want to follow.

To get to the ward the victims are at, you have to flash your badge at three different desks. The last one gives you a hard way to go about clearance, until, thankfully, Dr. Kimura spots you through the little glass windows on the doors.

"She's with me." Kimura nods at the nurse manning the desk. He looks put out, but waves you through anyways.

She burst into an explanation as soon as the door clicks behind you.

"Your team found a sample of the cure in Dr. Nichols' home laboratory. I had it sent to the CDC's NMR spectroscopy team- they've got the composition figured out. Once they know the proportions of the compounds, I've got a team of some of our biomolecular engineers and pharmaceutical technicians ready to reproduce it. If there's any controlled substances in the cure, it should help you narrow down suspects. Even if it doesn't, the Detrick NMR team has a sample of the anthrax strain used-"

"Dr. Kimura-" you stop her as politely as you can. "We've identified the unsub. I'm here to see my team member that was admitted. Sorry- I should have been more clear."

She looks at you blankly for a moment, then snaps out of "Chief of Special Pathogens" mode. With a renewed sense of urgency, she waves you along with her as she walks to Reid's room.

He looks horrible.

The bags under his eyes look darker than you've ever seen them. His breathing looks shallow and his heart monitor is beeping a bit too fast for comfort.

Even with how horrible he looks, he's still Spencer Reid. You almost expect him to open his eyes and immediately start his enthusiastic rambling. He doesn't move at all, not even when you call his name.

"He's stable for now, but I don't expect any improvement until we get the doses of the cure." Dr. Kimura says softly.

"Do you-" your voice shakes "-expect him to, um, get any worse before then?"

A beat of silence goes by.

"It all depends on how long it takes to get it here."

You nod, because the tight feeling in your throat doesn't let you speak. She steps out after telling you to come find her if you have any questions.

You stand and stare until you can't bear it anymore, collapsing in the chair near the foot of the bed. You want to drag it over beside him. You want to hold his hand. You want to stay there until he opens his eyes again.

A good coworker would do that. A best friend would do that. A girlfriend would do that.

You're none of those exactly. Stuck somewhere in the middle of the three, it feels like a conflict of interest to get too close to him. If you get too close, you might find yourself tipping into something more with him or being rejected and stuck as a coworker to him forever. You can't take a chance like that.

You leave the chair where it is. You grip your phone in case it buzzes with new information while you keep your eyes on him. After a miserable half hour, you get the update.