Dazed | Spencer Reid FanFiction

Chapter 24: Bigger Than The Whole Sky

        I leave the house with Morgan and Ryder, I am an actual mess. Morgan is driving like a maniac which is doing nothing for my morning sickness. Halfway to the BAU I tell him "pull over, I'm gonna be sick." Morgan follows my instructions and doesn't question it because I've been car sick with him many times before. When I get in the car, I ask Morgan "what do we know about his abduction?" Morgan nods and says slowly "his window was broken and his gun was left in the car. They probably beat him to the punch." I ask "then why did he take the time to write the note?" Morgan shrugs "he's been doing this job for a long time, he must've known he didn't have many choices and leaving a note was the best way to help us find him."
         I nod "we agreed on nicknames to call each other if we were in danger, among other signs." Morgan nods "what does 'keep going' mean?" I shrug "I don't know." I think to myself that it must mean that even if something happens to him that he wants me to keep going and take care of the baby. I never could leave this baby even if Spencer dies. It'll be my last piece of him if that does happen. I start crying again. Morgan looks at me and says "look, this is what all of your training has been for, you need to remember it and be extra vigilant. Even at the BAU. Don't trust anybody outside of the team." I nod, trying my best to keep myself together but my hormones and this baby are making that exceedingly difficult.
Morgan gets us to the BAU quickly and he is very protective of both Ryder and me as we make it into the elevator and up to the BAU office. Everybody is standing around the round table in weekend clothes as they dropped everything to come in and help Spencer. JJ is in leggings in a tank top as she walks over to me and hugs me tightly. She tells me "happy birthday, I know this is not how or where you wanted to spend it." I sniffle and tell her as we pull apart "just get my husband back and we can celebrate double next year." JJ gives me a sad smile and nods.
Hotch says "everyone take a seat. Does anyone have any idea who this stalker might be?" Morgan speaks up and says "if she wasn't so dumb I would say it could be Lila Archer." Hotch points at Morgan "that's not a bad idea." JJ asks "I'm racking my brain, what about the boy from like 10 years ago that came to Reid because he was afraid he was a serial killer?" My jaw drops and Penelope whispers to me with a grimace "yeah, that happened." Emily then adds "what about Lindsey Vaughn and her dad? They're in witness protection, right?" Penelope's fingers are flying on her keyboard and she says "the only person that could have been here today in this area is Lila. She has a movie that is filming at and around the White House."
Hotch asks "what about the others?" Penelope clears her throat and says "the Vaughns are located out of the country at this time is all I can see and the little boy, now adult, is in a mental institution that he checked himself into when he turned 21." I gulp out of anxiety. Hotch turns to Morgan "you and Prentiss go pick up Lila. She can't attempt to use her charm on Prentiss." Emily winks at me knowingly as she gets up and leaves the room with Morgan.
Rossi sits next to me and tells me "you have to tell me everything about the last couple of days. Where did you go? Who did you see? What did you do?" I clear my throat and nod "I went home sick yesterday with a..a 24 hour bug I think, I wasn't sure but I didn't feel good and I feel better today." I'm thankful Killian isn't here. I tell them "Spencer and I just stayed in and watched tv and cooked dinner at home after I got to feeling better." Rossi asks me "did you talk to anybody at work?" I shake my head "just my supervisor and Killian briefly. I hadn't had time before I decided I just couldn't do it."
Rossi nods "where was Spencer going this morning?" I gulp "now I don't think he was telling the truth, but he said he was going into work for a little bit." Penelope asks me "what time did he leave?" I tell her "maybe around 10 this morning?" She nods typing away. She tells me "his phone pinged at a jewelry store for quite some time this morning. It was probably a surprise for your birthday and he was getting final touches on it before giving it to you."
I nod, trusting Spencer and not really thinking he would lie to me otherwise. I mindlessly pet Ryder who is picking up on my emotions. He's also been clingier to me since the last couple of weeks, I silently wonder if he's known about this pregnancy longer than anybody else. Rossi asks me "have you noticed anything weird at work or around the house?" I sigh and tell him "Rossi I don't know what could be more weird than a detail watching our house night and day and security keeping an extra special eye on me at work. You've made it incredibly difficult for this person to get to me and Spencer. They probably waited to take their opportunity and he gave them the perfect deviation from routine."
Hotch looks at JJ and says "let's go look into that jewelry store. Annie you stay here with Rossi and Garcia. When Morgan and Prentiss have returned please let me know. Hold Lila in a cell and don't let her see Annie. I want to question her without her knowing Spencer's and Annie's involvement." Rossi and Garcia respond in understanding. JJ puts her FBI jacket on and zips it up to appear more professional as she walks with Hotch towards the elevator. Rossi leaves the room to see who all is in the office and lingering on a Saturday.
With Rossi gone, I let my guard down a bit and hold my head in my hands as I let a few tears escape. Penelope stands "oh honey, we will find him, I promise. If there is anything this team does well it's solve cases and save lives." I ask Penelope "tell me honestly, does every agent survive a case like this?" She starts a few sentences before finally landing on "not all, but most. And a great deal of them hardly have anything close to the IQ of Spencer." I nod "he's smart, but he can't defend himself well without a gun in a gun fight." Penelope tells me "he's talked and puzzled his way out of many tough spots. You should count your blessings that you don't know the worst of it. He's well prepared."
I nod and feel my stomach turn again as I quickly put Ryder down and run for the nearest trash can. Penelope exclaims in surprise as she runs over to hold my hair for me. She yells out to Rossi "I need some water and paper towels in here!" I hear Rossi jogging back a minute later with a roll of paper towels and a bottle of water. As he enters the room he says "whoa, this is really getting to you, kid." I nod "it's not every day your FBI agent husband gets kidnapped." Rossi nods "that really was a dumb thing of me to say, huh?" I nod and tell him "it sure was." I laugh humorlessly and take his hand to stand up.
Penelope tells Rossi "you call for clean up and I'm going to go help clean this one up in the bathroom. Come with me, my sweet." I don't fight her kindness as we walk to the bathroom and I rinse out my mouth and wash the ends of the hair that Penelope missed. Thankfully it didn't get on my clothes, I'm getting good at throwing up with as much grace as I can muster. It'll be a good skill to have over the next 9 months. I sit back down and feel a pain in my shoulder when I lean on the table. Penelope asks me "what's wrong?" I tell her "my shoulders are just hurting. Must've done something weird in the gym or when I was sleeping last night." Penelope gives me a little frown before clicking away on her keyboard some more.
I sit quietly and pray, harder than I have before. When I was kidnapped myself I didn't pray this hard because I was so focused on staying moving and staying alive. All I can do is sit here and wait and try to keep this pregnancy under control and under wraps for the time being. Penelope tells me "it looks like Morgan and Prentiss are pulling in the parking garage, I'll call Hotch. You should get out of sight from the doors." I nod and follow her directions, shutting the blinds and going to the other side of the room so I can't be seen in the doorway.
I definitely hear her when they bring her into the BAU. She has lots of questions and demands. Morgan says "hey, be glad we didn't cuff you in front of everybody, but I won't hesitate to do it now. Move." I bite my lip, happy to see Morgan defending my husband so fiercely. I could tell how upset he was when he got the news himself, but he's hiding it for me. They get her into an interrogation room and Rossi comes to get me to observe from the hidden side of the one way glass. I listen as Morgan and Prentiss play good cop and bad cop.
Morgan asks her "what are you doing in this area?" Lila rolls her eyes "shooting a movie, duh, you picked me up from the set?" Emily interjects "but, it's not a big role. Why did you come out here in the first place?" She sighs "fine, I did hope if I was out here I could rekindle things with Spencie. He hasn't answered any of my texts or calls and now I have to be stuck on the east coast for months." She makes a fake gag face and asks Morgan "why do you even care what I'm doing here?" Silence falls between the three of them as Emily and Derek exchange a look. Lila asks them "oh my God is Spencer okay?" Emily answers "Spencer was abducted this morning and we are trying to get to the bottom of it. Your presence here on the East Coast was mighty suspicious to us."
Lila shakes her head "no no no, I just wanted to patch things up." Morgan asks loudly "you know he's married right? He has a wife?" Lila looks down and nods "I..I was hoping.." Emily interjects "he'd leave her for you?" Lila nods without making eye contact. Morgan laughs humorlessly "Spencer would never ever do that. With anybody. He loves Annie too much." Lila nods and asks "is he going to be okay?" Emily briefly looks at Morgan before saying "we are doing our best. Somebody will let you know when we find him, but you need to move on, Lila. This isn't healthy and will land you with criminal charges if you aren't careful."
Hotch and JJ walk into the observation room and JJ nudges for me to follow her. Hotch gets to work on the Lila aspect of the case as JJ takes me to her old office and shuts the door. My blood runs cold, afraid of what she's going to tell me, that is until she smiles at me. She asks me "when were you going to tell me you're pregnant?" I can't hide my smile as I put my hand on my stomach. I tell her "we found out yesterday when I left work sick." JJ smiles warmly and gives me a hug. I ask her "did Hotch tell you? He's the only person who knows besides Spencer." She shakes her head. "We went to the jewelry store and the shop owner told us that Spencer was trying to get a bracelet made to honor the news. It was so sweet of him."
I smile and nod "that makes more sense than him going into work today anyway." She nods and says "we looked at the security footage and it looks like a person in a stolen car stole spark plugs out of his car when he was inside and followed him out of the parking lot. We've tracked the license plate, but it's already been found in an abandoned lot. Whoever is doing this knows what they're doing and how to avoid us." I ask her "please don't tell anybody I'm pregnant, okay? Seriously only Spencer, Hotch, you, and me know about this. If it gets out I'll know it was Hotch or you." She nods "I wouldn't dare tell. There are emergency saltines in here if you need them." She gives me a wink and walks out.
Penelope comes running out of the observation room and across to the round table room. She yells at everybody to hurry up and that a strange video is trying to stream to her laptop. Everybody hurries and leaves Lila locked in the interrogation room. Penelope gets it hooked up to the big screen and I see Spencer tied and sitting in a chair, bloodied and bruised in the face. I cover my mouth with my hands, panicked. Behind him is a person on the screen whose skin is covered completely and they're wearing a black hoodie, a blue wig, a mask, and gloves.
       The person says with a voice changer "welcome boys and girls, as you can see I have your resident genius and I don't intend to give him back. I'm giving him 3 choices on how he will spend his time here. Choice number one: I kill him quickly on video right now. Choice number two: he has sex with me. Choice number three: he takes dilaudid." I choke back sobs so I can hear what is said. I don't want him to do any of those things. I prepare myself for the potential answer of him saying he would sleep with this person, Spencer looks in the camera and says with tears in his eyes "I'm okay, Annie, I love you." The person says quickly "choose now or I choose for you!" I blink out more tears as I watch my battered husband make a difficult decision he never should have to make.
The tears slip out of his eyes as he says quietly "dilaudid." The woman asks "what was that?" He screams out in anguish "Dilaudid!" She, I'm assuming, walks away and Spencer begins moving around weirdly and blinking his eyes. Morgan turns to Hotch "I wouldn't be surprised if he was drugged into submission during the abduction based on the way he's acting in that chair." Hotch looks at me "get her out of here, she doesn't need to see this." I shake my head as JJ tries to gently take my arm "no, I'm staying right here." Hotch makes the wise choice not to fight with me.
        We all watch, helpless, as Spencer cries and the person ties a tourniquet on his arm before inserting the needle. I watch Spencer's face change as he feels the medication hit his system. When she is sure Spencer won't react at all, she turns to the camera and says "he will die by his choice of starvation, overdose, or gunshot if he never decides to sleep with me or if you don't save him in time. I'm pretty sure the latter won't happen until it's too late." The woman chuckles evilly as she cuts the feed.
I try the grounding techniques Spencer has done with me many times. They don't work. I run again to the nearest trash can and barely make it, not getting much up but water, ginger ale, and saltine crackers. JJ and Penelope are at my side while Hotch calls for maintenance. JJ tells me "let's get you cleaned up and then you probably need to lay down in Hotch's office for a little bit, yeah?" I nod, walking with her to the bathroom. She's very gentle with me and helps me clean up and rinse my mouth out. I ask her "am I just getting sick because of nerves or can I expect this all the time with every baby?" She gives me a grimace and says "well it's different for every pregnancy, so I can't say definitively for you, but the first trimester was the worst for me with Henry."
          I lean over the sink and splash cold water in my face. When I stand back up I tell her "let's go to Hotch's office and I'll lie down for a bit." She nods "that sounds like a good idea. I'll see if we can get something easy to get on your stomach, if not for you then for the baby." I nod in agreement, walking out of the bathroom with her and across the bullpen to Hotch's office. When we walk in, Hotch and Penelope have already got the couch set up with extra pillows and blankets for me. I give them a weak smile and thank them, going to sit down on the couch. Penelope tells me "how about I make you some peppermint tea for your stomach, yeah?" I smile and nod "that sounds good." Hotch nods at JJ who I guess takes the hint, leaving the room with Penelope.
         Hotch looks at me and asks "how are you doing?" I look at him incredulously and say "you've gotta be fucking kidding me, right?" He chuckles humorlessly and nods "I know, but I need to check in on you anyway." I nod and tell him "I just want to find Spencer." He nods "we do, too. Do you have any idea who this could be that's doing this? I don't know much about your personal life with Spencer, but could it be somebody you two were involved with?" I scoff "I would only intend to engage in polygamy if I wanted to willingly become a jealous bitch. It's not my thing and he's never pushed for it so I don't think it's his either."
          Hotch nods "do you guys spend time with other people outside of the team often?" I shake my head "really just family and people at work. I only see Killian and Alison outside of work on a regular basis and they're both connected to the bureau as well." He nods "this seems personal, so we are thinking it must be somebody connected to an old case." I nod "I can't think of anybody else." I sit for a minute and tell Hotch through a sniffle "he looked so scared." Hotch nods "I know. We will save him, Annie." I nod "ugh and after we save him we are going to have to get him off of dilaudid."
I look at Hotch in a moment of realization "this won't affect him keeping his job will it?" He shakes his head "we have video evidence that he didn't have much choice in the matter. His job is fine. He will probably have to go to rehab after we save him though based on this person's plan." I nod "I'm almost certain it's a woman. The only person I can think of so obsessed with Spencer is Lila and she's here." Hotch nods "I know. She's the only crazy ex-girlfriend Spencer has." I nod and stand up to go get a Kleenex from the desk. As soon as I stand up I feel dizzy. I take a step and try to shake it off, but I don't make it very far. I feel myself passing out as I hear Hotch yelling "Morgan call an ambulance!" He catches me on the way down then everything goes black.