All These Scars... (A Criminal Minds fan-fiction)

Chapter Five

JJ's POV:
  I didn't want Spencer to leave me but he had his own problems.
   Once we got home I let Henry lay on the couch while I got him a glass of water and a pill.
    "I know you don't like pills but I need you to take this, it'll make you feel better," I told him and handed him the pea-sized tablet. He didn't waste any time. He tilted his head back, popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed a big gulp of water. "Good job," I praised.
    "You need some too," he croaked and handed me the glass. I just nodded and told him I would take some pain relievers but I wasn't going to. I couldn't. My doctor told me it was best not to.
   At 5a.m I decided it was time to go to bed even though it was technically morning. We were both exhausted and I needed to escape reality. The only thing I was afraid of was Will entering my dreams, my nightmares. I just needed a way to escape from him, mentally as well as physically I guess.
     I carried Henry to bed and locked every door and window of the house just in case Will either sobered up and came crawling back to us or was drunk and furious once again. I was mostly afraid he would force his way back into the house so I made sure the entire structure was secured.
    Just to make sure, I slept on the couch. The sofa was as hard as a rock but I was so exhausted and heartbroken it didn't take long for me to fall asleep at all.

    Spencer's POV:
  I almost missed my flight. Almost. I had misplaced my ticket, dropped my wallet behind one of my dressers, forgot to pack my lucky socks and left the water running in my bathroom. I remembered to turn it off right before I left, luckily.
    I had JJ on my brain the entire time.
   She was hurt. Henry was hurt. Not to mention my mom was practically dying. It was all just too much. I wanted so, so bad to stay with JJ. To be there for her and protect her but I couldn't leave my mother like that.

    The plane ride took only 2 hours and 37.8 minutes but it felt like way longer. I had so much on my mind and no way to sort through it. I couldn't sleep so I was extremely tired when the plane landed.
    One of the symptoms for Schizophrenia was disorganized thoughts and behavior and that was exactly what I did.
    Everything I thought of I couldn't sort through and I was so forgetful and disorganized before I left for Nebraska. I loved my mother but I didn't want to end up the way she did...I couldn't.   
    When I landed I got my baggage off the baggage claim and found my driver that held up a sign that had my name written on it in really large block letters.
    My plans were to arrive around 9a.m, which I did, and then head straight to the hospital. I wanted to visit with her the entire day. Hotch said that I could take off some extra time because I had enough vacation days but I didn't want them having a case without me.
    Maybe that was selfish, leaving my mother sooner so I could return to my job but that job was the only thing that took my mind off of my personal problems. Helping others helped me. Not to mention, the team kind of needed me.
    I planned on leaving Nebraska on the 12a.m flight home where I would land at approximately 2:43 a.m if all went well. It was going to take me about 39 minutes to take a shower and get ready for bed. And the average time for me to fall asleep was about 54 minutes without medication, but with medication it took me approximately less than 28 minutes so I would've been asleep from around 3:50 a.m to about 8:30 a.m.
   Approximately 4 hours and 30 minutes of sleep if I took out ten minutes just in case there was anything wrong or any delay. Not enough to function properly. So I had to fit a nap in my schedule somewhere. I would try and sleep a little at the hospital and most of the plane ride. That left me with about 7 hours and 8 minutes of sleep. Better. But still not ideal.
     The driver dropped me off at the Lincoln Psychosis Treatment Center which was a gigantic building with moss stains on the wall pointing north and beautiful flower beds potted at each window sill of each room. I hesitantly entered.
    The place was very tranquil. A sculptured water fountain was in the corner of the reception area, constantly flowing crystal clear water. There was even a bird enclosure in the other corner with rainbow colored parrots and beautiful toucans.
    I walked up to the front desk and said, "I'm here to see Diana Reid. I'm her son."
   The man at the desk seemed to ignore me for a while as he typed in his keyboard but after almost a minute he looked up at me and said, "Is she expecting you?"
   "Yes sir..."
   "Name please?"
   "Spencer Reid."
   "There you are," he mumbled to his computer and typed something else in. "She is on the sixth floor and her room number is 6734 which, if you take that elevator right there," he pointed to an elevator to the right of me, "she'll be only a couple rooms over on the right." He gave me a warm smile and went back to clicking and typing.
    "Thank you," I told him and walked over to the elevator, hit the arrow button. Once the doors opened I waited on a patient and nurse to exit, then hopped in and hit the "6" button.
   There wasn't any elevator music but the sounds of nature. Birds chirping, leaves rustling in the wind, rivers rushing and the sound of other animals. You could here the trees swaying back and forth which was actually very calming. No wonder they played it. The sounds soothed me.
    The ding of the elevator jolted me out of my soothed state as I watched the doors slide open. I stepped out of the elevator, even though I honestly didn't want to, and walked to my mother's room on the right like the receptionist said. The hallways weren't busy. Just a few nurses were bustling about, some walking with patients and some walking in and out of rooms.
    I knocked on my mother's door before entering.
   "You can come in." I heard a woman say and entered the hospital room.
    A nurse was sitting beside her and talking to her quietly but with a smile as my mom sat up in bed.
  "Diana, look who it is!" The nurse bubbled when she saw me enter. My mom turned her head to me but when she saw me she looked confused. "Mrs. Reid. Your son has come all the way from Quantico to visit you," she said happily and my mother smiled.
   "Did he ever tell me he was coming?" She reached her hand to the nurse and she squeezed it lightly.
   "Yes, honey, he called you. Remember?"
   She pondered for a moment and nodded her head. "Yes, I think I do..."
   "Hey, mom. We uh, actually talked on the phone for an hour, fifty-one minutes and fourteen point three seconds." I smiled at her and she smiled back.
   "That's my boy."
  "I'll leave you two alone," the nurse said, "but I'll be back in an hour or so to give her some more mediation."
   I just nodded to the kind nurse and watched her exit my mother's hospital room.
   "It's really nice here, mom."
   "Yeah..."
   "So...do you like it here?"
   "Yeah," she said. She's not the best at keeping up a conversation... "How have you been?" She asked which actually surprised me.
    "I've been okay, mom." I instantly thought of JJ. I hoped she was okay and I wanted to call her so bad but I really needed to focus on my mother.
    "That's good, boy. What is it that you do, again? You're a..."
    "I'm an agent, mom. I work for the FBI at the Behavior Analysis Unit. Remember that?"
   "I do," she said but I could tell she wasn't all there. She never was...
   I talked to her for a few hours about my job, my friends/family, books, the crimes we solved and Maeve... She seemed intrigued but after the nurse gave her some medication she quickly got drowsy, lied down and dozed off. I decided to take a nap myself.