Poison (Criminal Minds)

Chapter Two

 “Turn around” said the woman's voice in Spencer's ear. “I want to see the look in your eyes when I shoot you.” Spencer did as told. He wanted to see his killer just as much as she wanted to see her victim.

She was pretty. Asian, late thirties or early forties. “Who are you?” he asked. She took her time answering. He could see her eyes. They were brown, and full of hatred.

“I'm . . . responsible for that.” She gestured to the grave with the hand not holding the gun.

“Why are you telling me?” asked Spencer. He was futilely trying to buy time, but he knew it wouldn't work. She would kill him.

“So you know who will kill you. My name is Li, and you don't need to know my last name.” She smirked. “And I'm going to put a bullet in your brain.”

Spencer swallowed. “Why?” he asked.

“Because you loved her too much” Li said angrily, gesturing at the grave again. “You're the only one who won't give up.”

Spencer knew that wasn't true. If Li killed him too, Morgan and JJ wouldn't give up until they caught her. Of course, he reasoned, they would never connect his death with Emily's.

“Bye, Spence” said Li casually, and she pulled the trigger.

–

The ambulance lights flashed red, blue, and white. The same colors as on the American Flag. Derek hated the color red. It was the color of blood. Spencer's blood.

Derek wondered why the unsub shot him in the chest. The head would have been more sure to kill him. As it was, the kid could die.

JJ had called Derek and the others when she woke up and Reid was gone. He had left early in the morning, they assumed. And the first place Derek had thought to look was the graveyard. He was the first one there. The one to find his friend laid out carefully over Emily's grave, his blood seeping into the frozen ground. His heart just barely struggling along. The unsub was long gone.

“Why?” asked JJ, to nobody in particular, it seemed. Derek sighed. Good question. It was senseless. Pointless. Just a way to crumble their hearts into tiny pieces and scatter them all over.

Derek should have been cold, but he wasn't. The adrenaline was still pumping, even now. It wouldn't stop, but he was grateful for it. It kept him warm.

Finally, the ambulance pulled away. They had to stabilize Reid before they could move him, and it took too long. It scared Derek. Every time an EMT moved, he thought they would tell him the kid was gone. But he kept holding on. Barely.

–

The hospital smelled like cleanliness. It always did. It seemed like Derek was in one way too often for his liking. And it was always Reid. The unsubs just gravitated towards the poor kid.

Derek sat on the edge of the plastic chair, waiting. JJ and Hotch and Rossi and Garcia were all there with him, but none of them were talking. Silence seemed like the best option.