Speechless | Spencer Reid FanFiction ✔️

Chapter 58: Shot to the Heart

Chapter 57: Hide & Seek Synopsis:
Annie was abducted by Harrison and his despondent wife, Isabella, who took her to a large remote house that belonged to Harrison's grandparents a decade ago. Annie cleverly evaded Harrison and escaped her restraints once, but was eventually found in the house. Harrison forced her to a bedroom at gun point and forced her to strip. He beat her, pulled out her IUD with his bare hands, and whipped her before the team showed up. She was not raped. Spencer tried to talk Harrison down but Harrison told Spencer if he couldn't have Annie in life then he would have her in death. Shots were then fired and Annie lost consciousness.

Chapter 58:

~Spencer's POV~

Hotch shoots Harrison in the chest as Harrison turns to shoot Annie. He fires a shot in Annie's direction as he goes down. I hear Hotch screaming "we need medics, now!" as I run over to Annie, inspecting her. She is bleeding profusely from her vagina, she is bruised all over especially in her abdomen, she has a black eye and split lip, there are bruises in the shape of a ring around her neck, and there's a gun shot wound in her left shoulder.
I turn and see what I am almost positive is her IUD covered in blood on the white sheets of the mattress. She's unconscious and I hope it's from the pain or fear and not from blood loss. I'm trying to talk to her and get a response from her as I work to untie her hands. "Annie, can you hear me?" I try to rub my thumbs on her cheeks to stimulate her to regain consciousness but it doesn't work. Medics come marching in the room with a stretcher and help me untie her the rest of the way before carefully and quickly moving her to a stretcher and covering her naked body. They ask who I am to her and I tell them "I'm her fiancé and I'm coming with her." They have absolutely no objections.
I follow them out of the room and down to the ambulance waiting outside. I hold her hand as I beg and plead with her to come back to me. I hear the medics talking. She has a weak pulse and all of her vitals are dropping. The medics are doing what they can to stop the bleeding and have given her oxygen. I try to hold her hand when I can and not interfere with the work of the paramedics. We are so far out of town but I know we are practically flying down the road towards the hospital. I hear them say she has possible broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a ruptured spleen. I can't believe I let this happen, this is all my fault.
I pray to a deity that I don't believe exists, to any and all deities really, that she will be okay as we head to the hospital. We make it there and they quickly pull her out of the ambulance on the stretcher and immediately wheel her back to an OR with the hospital staff. I'm shaking as the triage nurse tries to stop me from following her and she asks me who Annie is and what happened. I tell the nurse with a shaky voice "her name is Anneliese Winters, 26 year old female. She was abducted and beaten. She was abducted last night around 8 pm and was just recovered, we have no idea how long or to what extent he abused her in that time." The nurse nods and asks "is there anything you can tell me about her medical history?" I nod "she's allergic to amoxicillin and shellfish. She had an IUD but I'm pretty sure her abductor just removed it today." The nurse looks at me in shock for a moment before she continues writing.
The nurse then asks me "any injuries or surgeries?" I tell her "no surgeries but she was attacked in December and given a concussion." The nurse asks me "attacked by the same guy?" I shake my head "no, no she wasn't." The nurse looks shocked again but continues writing. She asks me "any drug or alcohol use?" I answer "she drinks socially every now and then but definitely not obsessively. No drug use, though." She asks me "any chance she could be pregnant?" I tell her "I would say it's not likely because of the IUD but I'm not so sure now. She and I are sexually active but haven't been in about a month. I have no idea if her attacker raped her or assaulted her sexually or not aside from the removal of her IUD."
The nurse nods "when she's out of surgery we will do a rape kit to take the utmost caution." I nod, completely relieved by that. She tells me "we will take you to a private waiting room and anybody else who shows up for her will be brought back there as well. If you need more privacy than that then let me know and I'll work something out. Hang in there. My name is Sydney if you need anything." I thank her and give her my name as she leads me back to the private waiting room. I pace back and forth, calculating statistics in my head. The mortality rate of broken ribs is 12%, the mortality rate of a traumatic pneumothorax is 26%, and the mortality rate of a ruptured spleen caught this early is 1%. The odds aren't bad but they could definitely be better, I'd rather not have to calculate mortality rates at all. Even if she survives all of this, which I know she probably will, given the statistics, she's going to struggle to recover mentally and emotionally. She was finally recovering from the loss of Emily and now she has to deal with this.
       After I'm pacing for I don't know how long, the team arrives. Everybody came, including Garcia and JJ. Garcia quickly walks over and pulls me into a hug and asks me "how's she doing, any updates?" I shake my head and respond with a strained voice "she's in surgery now. Looks like possible broken ribs, collapsed lung, and ruptured spleen." There are murmurs among the team but I just sit down and place my head in my hands, repeating "this is all my fault," over and over again. JJ comes and sits next to me on the bench, pulling me close and reassuring me. She says "Spence, you had no idea any of this would happen. You did what we all told you to do and gave her space. She's an adult and had the right to ask for space. None of us knew this would happen. She's going to be okay."
      I nod and sniffle "I really hope she's going to be okay. I can't live without her. Being without her the last day or so without a case to distract me drove me crazy. How am I supposed to do the rest of my life without her?" Morgan sits on the other side of me and says "the odds are good kid, there are no life threatening injuries and she's getting immediate treatment. She's going to be okay, let them work their magic in surgery and she will be good as new in no time." I nod, honestly just hoping they'll quit reassuring me. I ask "what happened to Harrison?" Hotch responds "he was dead on arrival. He bled out pretty quickly after I shot him." I nod "I'm glad it wasn't instantaneous and I'm glad he's dead. She will never have to worry about that monster again."
       Garcia says from her seat in front of me "Spencer, when you had me look him up in December I had no idea he was such a big part of Annie's past. She carries herself so well, you never would've known she'd had a trauma like that in her life." I sigh and nod "she doesn't like to talk about it. She still has regular nightmares about it and she's in therapy for that, among other things. She is going to hate that it will be common knowledge among the team. What do her parents know and where are they?" Hotch sighs "they're being brought here from the station now. They know it was Harrison, they don't know he's dead, they don't know why he did this, they don't know the history."
       I nod. I look at the team "I need to tell them everything. Annie won't want to tell them and I was okay with them not knowing until this, but they need to know what happened and what led to this. There will probably be rumors going around the area so we need to tell them the truth. They deserve to know now that it has relatively become common knowledge. I'll accept the consequences if Annie is mad at me." Everybody agrees with me. I ask Hotch "can you make sure I have some time in private with them when they get here so I can make sure they have the full story." Hotch nods and leaves the room to find a secure location so I can talk to her parents in private. I mull over my options and try to decide how to tell her parents what happened and where to start.
       Hotch comes in the room after a few minutes and gestures to me to follow him. He leads me to a conference room where I can see Annie's parents waiting through a small window. Hotch tells me "take all the time you need. I will be outside or if I have to leave for whatever reason then JJ or Morgan will be. If there are any updates on Annie's surgery we will let you know immediately." I nod "thank you." Hotch nods and I go into the conference room. Annie's mom looks at me and her face pales upon reading my expression. She looks at me and says "please don't tell me my little girl is dead." My eyes widen and I shake my head "no! She's in surgery right now." Both her parents deflate with relief and then Mrs. Winters turns to me and asks "then why do you look so grief stricken?"
        I stumble over my words a bit as I sit down so I can face them. I tell them "Annie was badly hurt by Harrison James. He targeted her because, when Annie was in high school, he sexually assaulted her for a long time when she would spend time at the James residence. He groomed her and pressured her to do things she didn't want to do. It stopped when Megan James caught him and ended their friendship. I assume now that she ended the friendship to protect Annie. We believe that the announcement of Annie's and my engagement was a trigger for Harrison. It upset him so much that he hired a private investigator to stalk Annie and learn as much as he could about her and her current life."
Annie's parents look understandably distraught. Her dad stands and says "I am going to kill that son of a bitch!" I stand with him and tell him calmly to sit back down. After he has returned to his seat, I tell him "that's another thing. He was shot at the scene and was dead on arrival." Mr. Winters asks me with clenched fists "how did he die?" I look down as I respond "he died of blood loss caused by a gun shot wound to the chest." He looks at me and nods before asking "who did it?" I say "my unit chief. I would've done it myself, but Harrison instructed me to come in without a Kevlar vest or a gun or he would shoot Annie." Mrs. Winters looks shocked and says "Spencer, you shouldn't have put yourself at risk like that!" I tell her "I would do it a million times more if it means that it saved Annie in the end. I just hate that she was taken or that any of this happened."
Mr. Winters nods "I feel so guilty. I should've checked on her before bed. Maybe she wouldn't have been hurt if we had looked for her sooner." I sigh and tell them "I've been having similar thoughts, but there's nothing we can change now." Mrs. Winters agrees before asking "is this what the nightmares have been about? The whole time?" I nod, trying not to make too much eye contact. Mrs. Winters cries in response and says "we should've known. We should've known she was being sexually assaulted by a boy when she was in high school." I empathize with them and say "she hid it well. She didn't want you to know, she didn't want to talk about it. She's been going to therapy for it and working through things in a healthy way for a long time."
Her parents are understandably upset and processing. I tell them "she will likely not want to talk about it with you two. She never wanted you to know because she didn't want you to feel bad about it. She will talk to you about it if she wants to, but please don't bring it up, especially during her recovery." They both nod, fully understanding the situation. We discuss a few minor logistical things before I go back to the waiting room with the team. I offer for them to come back with me, but they both opt to stay in this conference room together. I understand completely and tell them we will make sure they stay updated as well.
Hotch and I walk back into the waiting room and Morgan asks me "how'd it go?" I nod to myself and say "it went okay. It wasn't enjoyable in any way, but it went well considering everything. They wanted time alone to process so I would give them space unless there's news about Annie." Everybody nods and agrees. We all talk, some of us about the case and some of us just choose to talk about something, anything, to distract us from the gravity of the situation. I feel better around my team, my family, but I still won't feel better until I have my Annie back in my arms.
We mill around in the waiting room on autopilot for a few hours, at some point somebody left to get food but I'm not sure who. I can't eat in a time like this. After hours of waiting, a surgeon walks into the room. He asks the room "are you all here for Annie Winters?" We all affirm his question and he looks among us briefly before saying "she's going to be okay. She's in recovery now, she should be awake in a few hours. She did have a traumatic pneumothorax, ruptured spleen, and a couple of broken ribs, all of which can heal for the most part with a few weeks of rest and medicating at home. The bullet to the shoulder grazed her more than it hit her, but she's still going to have trouble using that arm and will need a sling for a few weeks and some physical therapy for about 6 weeks."
The doctor turns to leave and I follow him out the door. I ask him in a more private area "Doctor I have a question." He nods and asks "what's your relation to Miss Winters?" I tell him "she's my fiancée." The doctor nods and checks the chart. He says "yes, um what can I do to help you...Dr. Reid?" I ask the doctor "he removed her IUD, what does that mean for...her...future?" The doctor nods and says "she should be fine. Believe it or not, the vaginal bleeding from the IUD removal was fairly average, maybe a little more from the crudeness of the McGyvered procedure. After she recovers she can get another one if she would like." I nod and ask "so she should still be able to have children?" The doctor nods and gives a sad smile "she's going to be okay, give her a couple of months to recover and hopefully she will return to being her normal happy healthy self." I nod and thank the doctor as he leaves to update her parents in the conference room.
Sydney, the triage nurse from earlier tonight, approaches me and offers to take me to Annie's hospital room to wait for her to wake up. I nod profusely and follow her up a few floors to Annie's hospital room. Before we walk in, Sydney turns and says to me "now, she won't look like her normal self, so don't be too surprised by that, okay?" I nod and follow her into the hospital room. Annie still has a black eye and a split lip, she has butterfly bandages on a couple of cuts on her forehead, a sling on her left arm for the bullet graze in her left shoulder, a chest tube has been inserted, and the bruises around her neck and the rest of her body that I can see have purple and yellow marks blooming around them. Her vitals are stable and she seems to be sleeping peacefully. It breaks my heart to see her in the aftermath of such brutality and I feel like a failure, I should've been there to protect her.
I pull a chair up next to her hospital bed and take one of her hands in both of mine. I try to talk to her, not fully sure whether she can or can't hear me. I tell her "I'm so sorry, Annie. I should've been there. I should've paid attention. You held out, you survived so far so I need you to keep fighting. I need you to stay with me. I love you so much. I don't want to live in a world without you. Ryder doesn't either. If you can't do it for me or for you, do it for Ryder. He will never understand why you never came home. Please hang on, keep fighting. I love you so much, more than I've ever loved anyone or anything in my entire life, please hold on for me. Please." I continue begging and pleading with her until I've worn it out so much even I'm tired of hearing it.
      Instead I turn to her face and start telling her the things I love about her. "I love how you laugh so hard that you snort and then laugh harder after you hear it. The way your eyes light up at the realization makes a happy warmth spread in my soul. I love how, no matter what you do, the tendrils of hair that frame your face fall down out of every pony tail, every bun, every braid. It's like they're meant to be there. I love how you have freckles around one eye, like you held a kaleidoscope of the sun around your right eye and it peppered you with light freckles. I know you hate them, but I count them over and over again when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. I love how you talk in your sleep. It's often nonsense, but it's usually funny or sweet. I love a little bit less when you sleep walk, but only because I know that means you are really stressed or upset about something. It means you're so stressed you can't even have a reprieve when you sleep."
        The heart monitor is still steadily beeping in a normal resting sinus rhythm. I continue my soliloquy on why I love my fiancée. "I love how you get so excited about something that you talk like the Tasmanian devil and nobody can understand, even though, ironically, you're a speech therapist. I love it when you sing. I especially love it when you don't know I'm listening, or when you don't know you're doing it. Your voice, as well as all of you, is the most beautiful when you think nobody is watching. I love how you love with every molecule in your body, but you love so hard you don't show yourself the love and appreciation you deserve. I love how you take care of Jack and Henry. You are so good with them and it makes me so excited to see you be the mother of our children one day. You will be a spectacular mother and I will hopefully be so lucky to be the father of your children, there with you every step of the way."
         "That's really beautiful, Spence." I turn and see JJ standing in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe. I ask her with a shocked and sheepish expression "how much did you hear?" She gives me a half smile and says "I came in around the freckles part." She steps forward and pulls up a chair. She asks me "how's she doing?" I sigh and say "the same as she has been since I came up here." JJ nods and pats me on the shoulder. She tells me "well, Spence, you've been up here about 3 hours. Maybe you should go get some food or some rest, maybe change your clothes?" I shake my head "no, I'm staying here until she wakes up." My voice clenches and my eyes water as I say "She needs to know I'm here now. I wasn't there for her then, but I'm here now."
        JJ pulls me into a hug and shushes my crying. She tells me while still in an embrace "Spence, it's going to be okay. She's going to be okay. She will forgive you, she will still love you. You did what she asked for, you were trying to fix things. You were here. You were in Tennessee, there for her. She is okay and Harrison is dead. She finally beat the monster that's been haunting her for a decade, she's free." I nod. Nothing will make me feel less guilty until I see her looking back at me, eyes open and full of life. I say softly as we pull away from our embrace "I just wish she would wake up." JJ nods and says "we all do. We are here for you, both of you. Don't push us away, you do that if you're overwhelmed sometimes. We want to help, we are eager to help." I nod and sniffle "thank you."
        A nurse walks in then and gives us sad smiles. She sighs and says "still sleeping, huh? She must've been really exhausted." I nod and ask "is it normal after..after physical..trauma like this for a patient to sleep this long." She nods "in my experience, the longer one sleeps after a surgery is an indicator of how worn out they were mentally before hand. Her vitals are strong and she did well in surgery. I'm confident she will recover beautifully. Hang in there." She checks a few things as she's speaking before leaving the room and giving us privacy again.
        JJ stands and says "well, I'm going to get and bring you food and you are going to eat some of it. What would you like?" My mind races for an answer before my eyes land, again, on her. I randomly remember the night I picked her up, completely intoxicated, from a girls night and took her to McDonald's. Suddenly, that's the only food that sounds just the littlest bit appetizing. I turn to JJ and say "a ten piece chicken nugget with barbecue sauce, a large Diet Coke, and a medium chocolate shake from McDonald's." JJ smiles and nods "coming right up." She gives a gentle half wave before leaving the room.
       Alone again waiting for Annie to wake up, I reminisce over that night. Annie was acting like a toddler, albeit a horny toddler. It was right after she had gotten the IUD. The IUD that is now in either a biohazard bag or an evidence bag, I'm not sure which. She was so surprised at how understanding I was with the whole situation, but I never understood why. Maybe it was because of Harrison? Maybe he was never understanding with her when she said "no" or "not right now" when he asked, or more likely told her to do something she didn't want to do? She doesn't like to talk about what happened with Harrison, but I've been piecing together different portions like a puzzle since she told me what happened that afternoon on her couch, eons ago. I've also been taking pieces from her sleep talking and sleep walking when they coincide with her nightmares.
       If she was his first, his test subject, then maybe he wasn't as rough on her then. I can't imagine her ever being willing to open up to any man if her first encounter with one outside of her family was anything like what she experienced in the last day or so with Harrison. I know his wife was a crumbling mess when they pulled her out of the house. She had been beaten and whipped, too. They found her in the same position Annie had been in, Harrison just left her there. There has to be evidence linking Harrison to other girls, Annie needs to do a rape kit so we can possibly link him to other unsolved cases, even in death. Maybe just a little closure will help somebody.
        I ponder the different possibilities and try to connect more pieces of the puzzle while I wait on Annie to wake up. I try to find any reasoning to point me in the direction of how to proceed with discussing what happened with her when she wakes up. I don't know how she will react or what she will even remember. She's going to need more therapy for sure. I must have been deep in thought for a long time because JJ knocks against the door frame quietly before coming back in with the McDonald's. She walks over to a bedside table and begins to unpack it. I stop her "JJ I'm not hungry right this second, can you pack it back up?" She gives me a serious look and says "you're eating a good amount of this before I leave this room. I do not want you passing out because you forgot to eat." I give her a sad smile and nod. I go to respond to her statement before I hear grumbles and moans coming from Annie.
        I turn to look at her as I see her eyes fluttering and hear the heart monitor pick back up. After about 10 seconds her eyes shoot open and screw back shut as she sits up and screams. She doesn't even register where she is before she starts screaming "don't hurt me, please, stop!" I lunge forward and try to get her to see that it's me. I tell her "Annie! Annie! It's me, it's Spencer! You're safe, you're in the hospital!" She opens her eyes again and begins to cry tears of relief. She pulls me into her and I just pull her into my lap the best I can as she curls into a ball. I just let her cry into my shoulder briefly and rub her back as I shush her, waiting for the tears to stop.
       After a minute or so she reluctantly pulls back and looks at me "where is he?" I tell her "he's dead. Hotch shot him. He's not coming back, you're safe." She nods and sighs in relief. She's still sniffling, but I think she's too tired to keep sobbing. I tell her softly "baby, can I put you back in the bed?" She nods and sniffles as I gently lower her back down into the bed and tuck her in under the covers. JJ says "I'll go get the nurse."

AN: this chapter was over 7,000 words before I decided to split it up into two chapters. Sorry it took me so long to update and I have no idea why it marked as complete at some point in that time gap. The next chapter will be updated soon because it's already like half written. Annie and Spencer's story is far from over, my lovely readers. 💛