The Ghost of Princeton ||Spencer Reid||

patch it

SPENCER

I dropped to my knees next to Cressida, her eyes closed and ice-blonde hair splayed on the concrete around her.

"Cress-"

I was cut off by her coughing, eyes tightening in pain before they opened up. There was no blood anywhere, no hole in her skull... just a hole blasted into the front of my jumper.

"I thought these vests stopped the pain of being shot." She whispered, sitting up and taking my jumper off her body. A bullet was lodged into the front of the bullet-proof vest.

"No, they just..." I smiled as she raised an eyebrow at me. "They just stop the bullet from..." She smiled, looking away from me as I realised she was making a joke. I should have known that. "You scared me." I told her, changing the subject.

"Sorry..." her smile fell as I looked away, to the rest of the street where Smith and Wylan were being arrested. I then looked to the apartment building.

"Were you trying to get him to shoot you?" I asked, a sigh left her body as I looked back at her.

"Yes and no." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Cooper is gone, we're still looking but I doubt he's doing anything other than running." Hotch's voice came through the ear piece.

"Shit..." I whispered, looking back to the building.

"What?" Cressida asked as I stood up and held a hand down to her to help her up. While Hotch might think that Cooper was only going to run, I didn't want to take the risk. "Spence, what is going on?" She took my hand and I pulled her up to standing, grimacing as her face twisted in pain. The chance that she had a broken rib or two was high, but at the very list she would have severe bruising.

"We need to get you to the van." I said as she picked my jumper off of the sidewalk.

"Why? What happened?"

"Cooper got away." I said, and the look on her face hit me in the chest. "He's probably running but I just want to make sure that you're safe, okay?" She nodded and walked with me back to the surveillance van. Seaver, Garcia and Emily were all waiting for us inside, as well as Strauss who was too busy on the phone to even look at us as we walked in.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Garcia asked as she walked over to us, pulling me into a brief hug before she did the same to Cress. Although, I didn't let out a hiss of pain like she did. "Oh, you're obviously not okay, you got hit."

"Well, it's a good thing that I stole the vest." Cressida replied as Garcia let her go.

"We wouldn't let you go out there without one." Emily said, joining the now growing circle. "Good thing Boy Genius here let you borrow a jumper. Although, now it does have a hole in it." Cressida started loosening the vest as Emily spoke.

"I can patch it, it will be like it didn't happen." Cressida said before she pulled the vest over her head.

"It's fine, don't worry-"

"I'll fix it." She cut me off once the vest was in her hand and she was standing in a white t-shirt.

"Search has been completed, Cooper is gone. We'll get a broad search underway and get blockades up so hopefully he doesn't get too far." Hotch again, giving us an update I didn't want to hear, this time I heard it over the radio and took my ear piece out.

"Fuck." Cressida swore, and I could see that her anger was being reined in.

"We'll get him." I tried to reassure her, but she just shook her head.

"If he's gone, there's no catching him. Not now. Smith and Wylan have both been arrested, I'm out, he's by himself. His first step will be self-preservation, he'll run as far and as fast as he can and do whatever is necessary to get to a safe distance." Cress said, and of course she was right.

"Then you're still safe. He won't pop up again until he has a plan, and he won't go for Fort Detrick after this. Surely he would know that his face will show up all kinds of alarms if he tries." I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, putting her hand on top of mine. "For now, if he's gone then we can get you to a medic. Make sure your ribs aren't cracked."