Mágoa // Spencer Reid

Chapter 50

"What's broken can be mended, what's hurt can be healed. No matter now dark it gets the sun's gonna rise again."
Meredith Grey

Three days passed and Maria was still in hospital; the BAU were still trying to gather leads on the case, coming up empty. Spencer and Ben were glued to the two seats at either side of Maria- only leaving when they absolutely had to, Maria was slowly getting stronger- her ribs had been re x-rayed, showing that they were slowly healing and that the rest of her injuries were on the mend. The head of plastic surgery had scheduled for her to have her cheek bone repositioned in two days- meaning that hopefully in four days she'd be allowed to leave, not that she wanted to. Leaving the hospital would mean going back to the apartment where this had all happened, and she didn't feel safe there.

The Chicago team had made no effort to check on her, Hotch had informed them of her recovery and the details of the attack but they hadn't gone to the effort of visiting her in hospital. She seemed to be sleeping all of the time, Spencer and Ben often felt awkward about sitting watching her sleep- the two exchanged as few words as possible. There was an awkwardness in the air, and they both knew it. Spencer had been ignoring all of his calls from Evie, eventually she had messaged him saying 'if you don't reply I will assume you've been killed' to which he responded, 'can't talk.' The conversation had ended with Evie telling him they were done; 'if you can't text me, or take my calls because you are working I get that. But you've been unreachable for days- I'm the only one putting in effort in this relationship. I think we should see other people.' Spencer had attempted to reply but she had blocked his number from the looks of things. Ben received several calls from Julio, checking in on Naomi- he had kept them all in the loop as much as he could. Currently Maria was sleeping and the two men were sat watching her, guarding her.

Maria was lying in the hospital bed, her hospital gown was thrown on the floor in the corner of the room. On one side of her was Ben- who was twiddling a chunk of her hair around his fingers, his broad shoulders had small hickeys from his collarbone to his shoulder and up his neck, his toned body glistened slightly with sweat. On the other side of Maria was Spencer who was peppering her bare shoulder with gentle kisses, she let out a quiet giggle and looked up at his hazel eyes- she found herself extremely shocked at Spencer's body, she had expected him to be scrawny- yet here he was, lying next to her, his abs lightly toned like his arms. His hair was slightly messier than normal, he let out a chuckle as Maria ran her hand through his locks.
"Good morning." She murmured to the two men, they both greeted her and leant into her face to kiss her cheeks.

"What the fuck!" She yelled as she pushed herself up, almost ejecting herself from the bed. Ben and Spencer both jumped up, in confusion ready to aid to her. "Get Penelope, then please can you both go for a walk?" She spoke in an almost husky voice, one that was alien to her as much as it was to Spencer and Ben. The two men scrambled out of the room leaving a flushed Maria to catch her breath. A few minutes later Penelope arrived in the room, wearing a blue and green dress, blue glasses, green earrings and other accessories in the two colours.

"What happened?" She asked as soon as she sat down, Maria quietly told her about the dream- her whole face flushing red.
"So you just had a 'good' dream about Reid and Ben?" Maria nodded and buried her head in her hands, Penelope giggled at her. "Wait... was it like a three-" Maria put her hand over Penelope's mouth and nodded, "well, well, well, just when I was thinking you were innocent and boring!" Maria would've walked away had she not been on bed rest, she eventually let out a laugh.
"I am innocent! Maybe not boring but I'm innocent!" Garcia chuckled,
"Well that dream suggests otherwise." She raised her eyebrows suggestively,
"I'm as innocent as the Virgin Mary!" She whisper yelled. Penelope let out a loud laugh,
"Penny I ain't kidding!" Garcia paused for a moment before she had the 'aha' moment,
"Oh, so you've never had a dream like that before?" Maria shook her head, "You my friend have been missing out!" Maria let out a small chuckle,
"And then I woke up, and they were both here- they were just sitting. Staring. Like I'm a zoo exhibit!" She complained, Penelope simply nodded.

"Okay, what is it?" Maria asked and Garcia looked up with wide eyes, "Pen, I'm a profiler- I know when something's bothering someone, especially my best friend. What's going on?" Penelope shrugged, a light flush creeping up her cheeks.
"It's just your case, there aren't any leads- and I want whoever did this go pay, the case can't go cold." Maria nodded,
"That isn't what's bothering you- or it is but there's something else, you've barely been able to look me in the eye since you got here." There was a brief moment of silence between the two before Penelope let out a small sigh.

"When you were brought here, I chatted to one of the doctors-" Maria nodded, "and she told me that there were some scars and cuts on your right leg." Maria took a deep breath and looked at Penelope, her eyeliner was slowly smearing down her cheeks taking some of her mascara with it, her cheeks had become red and her hands were shaking. Maria looked down at her hands and dug her nails into her palms, she felt as though she was going to puke- "she said that some of them were recent. Maybe a few days old. So, I thought back to a few days before this all happened- and then it clicked, it was the day that Reid chose Evie." By now both women were in tears, Penelope had gripped onto Maria's hand and refused to let go, Maria couldn't make herself look at her best friend.

"I'm sorry, I really am Penelope. I know I shouldn't have done it, but-" She paused, taking a deep breath, "it was the only way for me to feel. Spencer had broken me, he had led me on- let me think that he would choose me, and then he told me that he was picking Evie. I guess that he had broken me down so much that I didn't feel anything anymore, and I really needed to feel something. And please Penny- don't look at me or think of me as the person you need to be on eggshells about, I had been clean for a longtime- and one setback isn't going to make me spiral downwards." Maria managed to finish her sentence before letting out a sob, by now Penelope had stood up and was pulling her into a tight hug. Maria scooted over in the bed allowing Penelope to get in next to her, the two stayed there for a while, sobbing into each other's arms.

"I really thought he liked me, but I guess I was wrong. Why aren't I good enough?"