Dark Academia- Spencer Reid

Chapter 24

A.N- Hello beautiful people, sorry I have been a little absent, uni is getting crazy.  I'm popping in to say thank you for your beautiful comments and words of encouragement.  You are all truly the kindest beings to walk the earth.  As always my messages are open if you need a safe space to talk. Peace and love! xx- Reese

"Zena, baby come on we are going to miss our flight back if we don't pick it up," Spencer explained to Zena. However, the young professor couldn't snap out of the trance she was in.

"Spence, I swear I just saw Emily. But she looked so different," she explained anxiously, looking over her shoulder in worry and confusion.

"Z, Prentiss is at the BAU. Don't you think she would have told us that she would be in France while we were here?"

"No, you're right. I'm not sure what has me this way. I haven't really been sleeping well, it is probably the exhaustion." Spencer gave her a sad look, grabbed her hand and dragged her down the steps to the metro.

The flight home was long to say the least. There was turbulence beyond imagination, causing Zena to clutch onto Spencer's arm every twenty minutes or so. "Statistically, the probability of us crashing due to turbulence is extremely low. From 1980 to 2008 only 298 people have been injured in turbulence related plane crashes," Spencer whispered into his wife's ear.

"Spencer Reid, I love you endlessly, but if you say some shit like that again I will simply never speak to you again. And we live together and we are coworkers, just think about all that silence," Zena silently snapped at Spencer. This little outburst caused Spencer to chuckle and press a chaste kiss on his favorite persons forehead and squeezed her hand tightly.

Within moments of landing Spencer and Zena's phones began to ring. They both looked at each other and laughed. "Back to the office?" Spencer opened the car door for Zena, and she laughed kindly thanked him. "Back to the office it is," she said slamming the car door and preparing for the jet lag to tire her out this case.

As the couple walked into the office all they could see were solemn faces. "What is the matter? Did Spence and I ruin your relaxing time away from the two geniuses," Zena joked. There was minimal laughter, indicating to her that something was terribly wrong. "Reid, Barbarage, can I speak with you in my office," Hotch asked the two from his office door.

Zena and Spencer made their way up the stairs to the office. "Did you notice that Emily wasn't at her desk," she slyly whispered to her husband. He nodded slightly, a knot forming in the pit of his stomach as his feet carried him through the threshold of the tiny office space.

"Please, sit. There is no easy way to say this, so I am going to be upfront. While you two were gone we had an extremely gruesome case that dealt with a lot of Emily's past. In the process, the man from her past unfortunately killed her. I am so sorry, I know that she was family to the two of you," Hotch explained to the two agents.

Zena looked at Aaron and began to laugh maniacally. "Aaron, you're joking right? She put you up to this didn't she? She's at sin to win weekend! We had spoken about that before we left for Europe."

Hotch just looked at his fellow co-worker sadly and shook his head. "Zena, I am so sorry, but she is gone."

Spencer couldn't handle any more of the conversation and aggressively made his way out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Zena however couldn't wrap her head around what was happening. She sat in shock, staring at Aaron in disbelief. "Aaron, why didn't you call us? We would have come back immediately to help with the case! We could have saved her!"

"Zena, there was nothing any of us could have done. I'm so sorry we didn't call. But we wanted you and Spencer to have happy memories of your honeymoon. I mean your wedding was cut short for a case. You two deserved time with one another," her boss explained.

"Yeah Hotch, but at what cost? Because all I can see right now is that while Spencer and I were off galavanting in a foreign country we all lost a part of our family." It was Zena's turn to storm out of the room. The sight that she came into contact with once she was out of the office was heartbreaking. JJ had Spencer completely engulfed in her arms, doing anything in her power to calm down the racking sobs coming from his shaking body. Penelope was clutching onto Derek's arm as if her whole life depended on it, and Rossi was giving Zena sad eyes from the bullpen.

Descending the staircase, she couldn't help but to let the tears finally fall. Once she made it to the bullpen she ran straight into Rossi's arms. "I really can't believe it. I swear I saw her in Paris," she whispered into the older mans shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, tesorina. We thought waiting until you were home was best. I hope you can forgive us," Rossi choked out. Seeing the young woman he considered a daughter cry made him more emotional than he could have ever imagined.

Zena pulled away from the hug sniffling. She noticed that Spencer was still being comforted by JJ and thought that was best since they had been best friends for a long time, and had known Emily better than she had. "I'm going to go home and let this all sink in. Tell Spence to call me when he needs a ride home," she said with a soft smile giving Rossi one last hug.

Hours had gone by, and Zena assumed that Spencer was spending time with the team to aid in mourning the loss of one of his best friends. It wasn't until he stumbled into the bedroom at 4 in the morning that she realized he hadn't wanted space from his wife the whole day. "There is my beautiful wife," he slurred while stumbling through the bedroom door.

"Spencer, are you drunk?"

"Why yes I am Zena. So great of you to finally pay attention to me for the first time since I found out my best friend was murdered."

Zena rolled her eyes at Spencer's behavior and turned to her bedside table to grab her glasses. She knew how hard it was to lose a person you cared about, this unfortunately wasn't her first rodeo. She knew that Spencer was hurting and couldn't figure out how to control it. So she figured that the best thing to do was take all the heat he was throwing at her and hope she could talk it out with him and make him feel better.

"Spence, I'm sorry darling. I thought you would want time to spend with the team by yourself. I didn't want you to feel suffocated by me," she explained to Spencer, who was trying (but failing miserably) to take off his tie and change into comfy pajamas.

Spencer stopped mid struggle, whipping around. "I don't want to be left alone, Zena. I've been left alone my whole life when things got hard. When are you going to realize that normal people need to be surrounded by loved ones? Just because you never experienced familial love doesn't mean you should deny it to others," he viscously spat.

Zena made her way over to him, holding him by the shoulders she stared deeply into his eyes. "Spence, I love you and I'm sorry I left you alone today. I thought about how I would have wanted to be treated, I didn't think that we are different people, and I am sincerely sorry. But don't you dare bring my family issues into your pain. That is not something you get to throw around when you're hurt."

Zena then loosened his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. "I'll see you in the morning," she said sadly. Before Spencer could apologize their bedroom door was closed and he heard her silent sobs travel downstairs to the guest bedroom.