Being a Victim (Criminal Minds episode fanfic)

Chapter 25

Reid paced around his room for a few minutes trying to collect his thoughts. What was wrong with him? Was he really falling for another woman he had barely met? He clutched his phone as if it were his lifeline and stared down at it. He had one shot at this, he had to know what to do. He quickly dialled Morgan's number and held the phone to his ear. If one person was going to know what to do it'd be Morgan.

"Hey pretty boy, what's up?" Morgan answered jokily. Reid smiled at his phone before taking a deep breath in and out.

"I need to talk to you about something. You're the only one who'll be able to help me." Reid realised this made it sound so much worse than it actually was but it was too late, he'd said it now.

"Okay...?" Morgan said, trying to guess what this could all be about. It sounded morbid. "What's this about? Is your mum okay?"

"Oh, oh no she's fine. It's not about her." Reid said quickly. "I made it sound worse than it was. It's about a girl." Morgan let out a chuckle.

"Ooh pretty boy's got a date!" He teased. "So what's the problem? You need some advice from the dating master?"

"Yeah but he was busy, so I called you!" Reid added a little humour to the conversation to try and cover up the awkward feeling he had now, he was still pacing around his room, rustling his hair with his free hand.

"I can hang up on you, you know?" Morgan laughed.

"I just don't quite know what to say to her." Spencer sighed. This was more difficult than he thought. Even though Morgan was like a brother to him, revealing his love life -or lack of - was just as embarrassing. This was why Maeve was a secret.

"What, you're not going to tell your brother who it is?" Morgan was back to digging.

"Can't I just ask you-"

"Reid, my man, in order for me to give you the right information I need to know what kind of girl she is." Morgan wasn't going to stop, and for once this annoyed Reid. All he wanted was a quick and helpful guide on what to say or in Reid's case what not to say. Some girls apparently aren't fans of scientific theories or city facts. Reid sighed a huge sigh before speaking.

"You know who it is." Reid said almost cryptically. Morgan hesitated as he thought through what he and Reid had spoken about and slowly pieced the puzzle together.

"I already know the girl?" Morgan double checked.

"Yeah, from recently." Reid added, hoping to give enough clues to him to be able to get this over with. He humorous tone was now dead and a much more serious tone had taken over this conversation. Reid could hear movement from Morgan's phone as if he was pacing, then a slap echoed wherever he was. Morgan had obviously thought of someone.

"It's not that girl from a few weeks ago is it?" Reid felt angered that he referred to her as 'that girl' as he remembered what Morgan had said to him when he spoke to him.

"That girl?" Reid replied shirtily, something very out of the ordinary for him. He slumped onto a chair and rested his head on his hand.

"Look Reid, I don't wanna upset you man but this isn't healthy. You should cut this dead now. She's traumatised Reid, she'll cling onto you and she'll start getting overprotective of you and it'll keep escalating until she stalks you. We've seen cases like that before and you know it. What about the Johnson case we dealt with back in '05?" Reid's eidetic memory brought that case to the front of his memory. Man saved woman from being hit by a car and she got infatuated with him, he tried to remain nice but she scared him away and after he ignored her she tracked him down and killed him.

"That's quite a comparison, Derek." Reid's words were strong and angry. "Actually the woman was known to already have mental illnesses and was very dependent on others. She had previously had restraining orders out against her and had scared off four husbands because she got scared they were cheating. Grace isn't like that woman at all." There was silence on the other end of the phone.

"Look, Man, I just want what's best for you and if you wanna see her I can't force you not to. You've had a difficult time recently I don't want to see you get hurt." Morgan was finally being honest and Reid admired that. That was why he was so angry about it before. He was just looking out for him.

"I just want to check she's okay. She called me and she seems really traumatised. She's clearly depressed and possibly even suicidal. I don't want her to feel that way after we went through all that to save her. She deserved to be happy." Reid was finally speaking his thoughts too, which felt like a weight lifting from his shoulders. "I'm not saying I'm in love with her, I just want to be there for her Morgan. But I don't know what to say or do to make her feel any better." Morgan sighed and paused. Reid felt his heart speed up with nerves. What was he going to say?

"Just be yourself. As strange as that is for me to say and for you to hear, I think she needs proper Spencer Reid. Just like Maeve did. They don't want to see Mr Swagger, just nerdy Reid."

"Thanks Morgan, I appreciate the help!" They said their goodbyes and Reid got ready to go to see Grace. Nerves built up in his stomach as he made his way there, wondering what she was going to be like after all this time. Three weeks had passed so quickly and yet she was still on my mind. Reid still couldn't get over that case or what they had found when they got to that basement. If he couldn't get over it then he doubted she would be able to do it much easier. She really needed someone to talk to and her best friend was gone. So now was his time to shine, time to be a good friend and a good man and help Grace.