BREAKING THE TEMPEST | cm

Chapter Two

Chapter Two: Someone To Stay

     Spencer Reid woke up to nothing but uncomfortable bright lights and pain. He refused to open his eyes - fearing what he might find. Constant beeping rung within his ears and caused his eyes to screw shut tightly. He wished he would just go back to sleep. With sleep, there was no pain. Unless they appeared.

"Hey, Reid." A dulcet, feminine voice replaced the constant beeping for a moment.

He let his eyes flutter open, just enough to see who the woman was. He was met with Penelope Garcia and her smile was sad. He closed them again, face contorting in a response to the pain. 

"Do you need anything?" She gently asked, keeping her voice quiet to assure she wouldn't irritate him.

He groaned lowly in discomfort, furrowing his brows. His boney hands slipped out from beneath the blanket and were placed on his torso as if his touch was going to get rid of the pain. It didn't, but he figured it was worth a shot.

Penelope swallowed back the lump in her throat. Her eyes wandered to his wrist bones that protruded out of his skin more than they usually did before. His entire body was frail and boney. His cheekbones were more prominent, his collarbone stuck out from beneath the hospital gown. To make it all worse, there were bruises everywhere. Garcia felt that if she touched him, he would break.

"Do you know who I am?" She continued to try to get a response from him.

He nodded slightly, shifting his position a bit in hopes of getting more comfortable, but it was no use. 

'Penelope Garcia', he remembered, 'Intelligent, funny, happy, bright, one of the good guys. Garcia is your friend. She loves you, you can trust her. You can trust her. You can trust her. You can trust her. You can...'

His eyes snapped open once again, this time they were wider. He looked into Penelope's, counting the number of colors he could find in her iris'. Only two. Dark brown and an even darker shade of brown. They reminded him of Emily's.

"Hey," She greeted his sudden eye-contact with a happy smile, "Hey, you."

He didn't think he even had a voice to talk, but he hummed in response. The hum was hoarse and cracked in the middle. His throat still ached from screaming. 

"You don't need to talk, just look at me." She assured, hesitating to put a hand on his arm but figured it was best if she kept her hands to herself for the time being.

Suddenly, his eyes ripped away from hers and darted around the room.

'Where's Emily?' As the thought crossed his mind, his heart began racing. Garcia arched a brow and turned her attention to his heart monitor. He began letting out fast and panicked breaths, body shaking in fear.

"Honey, you're okay! Shh, you're okay!" Garcia reassured, trying her best not to touch him.

"Where's Emily?" He asked fearfully.

His voice nearly made her cry. It was so unrecognizable and broken. She could tell it hurt him to speak.

"She's in the room across the hall, baby. She's okay." She stated, hoping it would calm him down.