Mágoa // Spencer Reid

Chapter 43

"I didn't lose you. You lost me. You'll search for me inside of everyone you're with and I won't be found."
R.H. Sin

After her disagreement with Spencer, Maria's mood had gotten much worse. The rage was threatening to bubble over, she was so pissed off at everything. She didn't deserve the shit the universe is giving her, she rarely admits it but she knows that she doesn't deserve this. She found Morgan in his hotel room, Jake was cuffed sat on a chair and Morgan was walking in circles around the chair.
"Why do you need the pills Jake?" Jake didn't respond, Derek took a step closer to Jake and repeated the question this time a little louder, "c'mon man. Talk to me." Jake stayed silent, Maria took a step closer to Jake and whispered in Derek's ear.

"Let me talk to him." Derek nodded and left the room, Maria perched on the bed opposite Jake. For a few moments she said nothing, she simply stared at him. He avoided her eye contact as much as he could but her eyes were glued to him and he couldn't stop himself from looking into them.

"Are you going to tell me why I have been arrested?" He finally asked, she ignored him and bent down and rolled up one of his trouser legs, hoping for some sort of bandage, nothing. She rolled up the other one and there was a bandage.
"What happened to your leg Jake?" She questioned and he shrugged, "Because this bandage looks pretty big, you can either tell me what happened or I will take off the bandage and look for myself, but if it's something that happened recently then it should probably stay bandaged to prevent infection." She reached to the bandage and Jake began to squirm.
"Ok, I'll tell you!" He yelped, "I got shot ok?" Maria let out a breath of relief, Jake was the guy in her apartment.
"And why were you shot?" He paused momentarily.
"I was in the field, it's not the first time." Maria let out a humorless laugh.
"Ah well, I must be mistaken then. Because I thought you were the person who snuck into my apartment, hid under my bed and then cut my leg open before running out after being shot in the leg by yours truly." He smirked.
"You definitely aren't mistaken, but you don't have any evidence." Shit. He made a valid point, there really wasn't any evidence, just the fact he had been shot in the leg, which would make it the Chicago team's word against Maria's. She stood up in a huff and exited the room. Where an eager Derek practically pounced on her.

"So, did you get anything out of him?" she nodded,
"He pretty much confessed, but we don't have any evidence. So we are screwed." She ran a hand through her hair and Derek smiled at her.
"I got baby girl to bug the room. We got him!"

Everything after that had been a blur, the BAU had charged Jake with assault and breaking and entering. Hotch had said there was evidence to charge him for the murders, but he hadn't explained. Maria could see how the staged suicide could be pinned on him as it was like Naomi's suicide and that is classified information, but the other murders she was struggling to see how it was Jake. After Jake was arrested Maria had gone back to the Vagos gang and told them she wanted to go back to Virginia for a few days, it was her way of avoiding the Chicago team.

She got the jet back with the BAU and she sat alone reading the entire journey, when they landed Penelope took her back to her apartment where they had a gossip and a bottle of tequila. The next morning Maria was able to dress normally as her wardrobe was still full of her things and her apartment was pretty much how she had left it. The next morning she had gone to speak to Bill about the situation and how she thinks that she should be transferred back to the BAU as soon as possible, but he had dismissed her telling her that it would be okay. She had argued with him and presented the points that she had been attacked and had she not shot Jake she probably would've been killed, but he simply said "just because one of the team members is bad, it doesn't mean they all are." She had ended up storming out of the office yelling, "Whatever happens when I go back and face that fucking cult of a team, is on you uncle Bill. It's on you."

After the stress of the meeting with Bill she had told herself that she had earned a trip to the coffee bookshop that she had once dragged Spencer to. It was her all time favorite place; she adored the mixed smell of coffee and old books as she entered, she loved that the crime and thriller shelves took up almost a full wall, meaning that she had so many books to choose from. And the coffee there is in her opinion the best in Virginia, and the baristas know her order without her needing to ask for it, a large black americano and a lemon and poppy-seed muffin which costs her $4.90. So to treat herself and de-stress she made her way to the bookshop, she walked over and said hello to the barista and ordered a coffee and said she would get a cup cake when she has bought a book. She made her way over to the crime section of the store and she grinned upon noticing more of her favorite crime author, David Baldacci's, books on the shelf, she grabbed them all. And practically ran to the till, her books were piled up her torso and they just about reached her nose, her hands holding onto them at the bottom.

She took a seat in a small booth and pulled out a book, she began reading as she picked at her lemon and poppy-seed muffin and sipped away at her coffee. Each time the doorbell rang, indicating that someone had entered her head whipped up, so when it did it for the thirteenth time since she got there she looked up to see none other than Spencer Reid and his girlfriend Evie. She felt sick and decided to stick her nose deeper into her book, from where she was sat she could hear Evie and Spencer bickering. From the sound of it, Evie wanted to go and see a movie and Spencer wanted to buy some books and go home, Spencer kept suggesting books to Evie that he had once recommended to Maria; The parliment of fowls, The collector, Strangers on a train, Mother night, The illustrated man. But each time he suggested one Evie complained or moaned about how it wasn't something she cared about. Maria felt genuinely sorry for Spencer, he was making effort with Evie and she was acting like a child, but at the same time Maria was trying to understand why Spencer was with her if she acted that was all the time.

After finishing her food and coffee she decided to leave, as she got to the door her plastic bag holding her eight new books snapped and the books fell out everywhere. She groaned and quickly began attempting to pick them up knowing Spencer hadn't left yet, she didn't want to see him. As she was piling them up a pair of hands appeared, the fingernails had bright red nail polish on, she looked up to see none other than Evie. Once the two had stacked the books Maria thanked her before picking up the books and heading to ask for another bag.

"Hey wait!" Evie called, "you forgot a book!" Maria spun around and made her way back to Evie,
"Thank you!" She went to grab the book but the pile nearly fell again, Evie quickly grabbed a couple of the books that were threatening to fall.
"Let me help you with these." Maria nodded and thanked her, as the two headed over to the till a voice called for Evie. Spencer.
"C'mon Evie, lets go." He called from the classics shelves,
"one second!" She responded, Maria heard Spencer let out an impatient sigh, followed by,
"I had to drag you here and now you don't want to leave! You just don't want to do anything I want to do." He rounded the corner and saw Maria and Evie, and he froze in his tracks.
"Gosh Spencer! I'm just helping this lady who dropped her books! What's gotten into you?" Spencer didn't reply, "You weren't like this when we first started dating. What's changed for you Spencer? Am I not good enough?" once again Spencer didn't reply, by this point Maria had put her books into a new bag and was wanting to leave.

"I'm sorry to interrupt. Thank you for your help!" She said smiling at Evie, she turned to Spencer who glared at her, she decided not to say anything instead she made her way back to her apartment.

It was only when she got home, that she realised how much it hurt seeing Spencer with Evie in the bookshop where the two of them went on their first 'date'. It was only then that she realised she missed him.

When Maria left the bookshop Spencer realised, that he found Maria's replacement in the bookshop where he fell for her. He realised that he can't replace Maria, she's one of a kind and he misses her.