Selcouth | Criminal Minds | Spencer Reid

Chapter 3

"Sweet Lies Coated In Heartbreak"
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I BARELY spare a glance to JJ and Hotch as they rush in, my eyes swimming at the seemingly random letters.

"Natalia, where is Morgan?" Hotch questions, his voice snapping me back to reality.

"Um, he was just here, try the break room," I murmur absentmindedly.

Suddenly, the stack of papers disappears into the hands of JJ.

"Yeah, I think you could use a break and a coffee," JJ chuckles, placing the papers on top of a file cabinet.

"Spence says I can't have anymore," I pout.

"Well, we are about to head back to the hotel so coffee probably isn't the best idea if you ever want to sleep," Spence laughs from the doorway, curls tumbling onto his face.

"Sleep is for the weak," I joke, yanking my briefcase from under the table and dumping my mountain of notes inside.

I ignore JJ's widening eyes as I trudge to the door. She follows after Spence and I as we make our way to the cars where Rossi, Hotch, and Morgan are already waiting and loading up the car.

"I call drivers seat!" I yell, scrambling towards the car just before Spence.

"Last time you called drivers seat, we almost died Nat!" Spence huffs, climbing defeatedly into the back seat.

"That was one time and in my defense, the cow ran out in front of me!" I laugh, starting to climb in before I notice the wires peaking out from under my seat.

I motion for JJ to hold still, preventing her from getting in the car, leaving only Spence in the back seat.

"And Spence, we only grazed that cow," I continue my story shakily, realizing the unsub is watching from the shadows.

"Turn off your cellphones," I whisper to JJ and Spence, switching mine off.

"Don't get in that car and back away from it!" I whisper yell to Rossi, Hotch, and Morgan. They seem confused, but soon it seems they get the gist of what I'm trying to warn them of.

"JJ, start to back up slowly and Spence, I'm going to help you out, ok?" I whisper, reaching out a hand to Spence.

"Nat, go, I don't want you here if it goes off," Spence replies, his voice steady.

"Spencer Reid, don't you dare offer me the easy way out because we both know there is no easy way out of anything!" I huff, grabbing his clammy hand and yanking him as hard as I can, bringing him to his feet.

He freezes for a millisecond before we are running towards the precint wildly, JJ's face frozen in fear.

That's when it goes off, sending us both flying, heat tinging our backs. The shrapnel embeds itself in my back, but I can't even let a scream slip past my lips before I tumble across the pavement and my world goes dark.

[ARIEL-JONES HOSPITAL]

My eyes flick open to a blinding white light, making my aching head throb in pain.

When the light becomes more tolerable, I turn my head slightly to take in the room. A hospital room, no less.

Spence smiles gingerly at me from a seat beside the bed and whispers a barely audible, "Hey,"

"What did I do this time?" I groan, starting to stretch when a pain in my back makes me stop.

"You took 3 pieces of shrapnel in your lower back," Spence replies, his eyes looking weary.

"Ooh, new record!" I laugh, just as the nurse strides into the room with a tray of needles.

"Nope," I mutter, yanking the iv from my arm and struggling to leave the bed.

"What are you doing?" Spence questions curiously, trying to keep me from leaving the bed as the nurse rushes over.

"I'm fine, I just need to go to the bathroom," I lie through my teeth, hoping Spence doesn't see through it.

"You need to keep the iv in if you are going anywhere sweetheart," The nurse sighs, attempting to insert the iv again.

I shrug off her attempts and reply, "I'll put it back in when I get out, ok?"

She looks torn between making me stay in bed and allowing me to go to the bathroom, so I make the decision myself and lock myself in the bathroom.

"I'm going to go tell the others you're awake, I'll be right back!" Spence calls through the door as I examine my back in the mirror.

Peeling back the gauze a bit, I notice that my wounds aren't as bad as I previously thought and are mostly superficial.

With a tiny grin, I slink back into the room and ditch my hospital couture in favor of my blood stained tee and my soot covered skinny jeans.

I cover up the t-shirt with Spence's jacket that has been cast aside on his chair and rush from the room with my gun now holstered back on.

I successfully avoid my team and make my way to the front, where a perky nurse eyes me suspiciously at her station.

"You look like hell," She chuckles, her brunette hair bouncing with every laugh.

"Haha, very funny Sherrie," I mock my sister, rolling my eyes jokingly.

"What do you need?" She sighs, plopping her pom pom pen down.

"Can you discharge me?" I plead with her.

"Let's see; you have a possible concussion and 3 lacerations to your lower back and you want me to discharge you?" She questions, raising her eyebrow slightly.

"Come on Sherr, I've had much worse," I beg her, pulling out my puppy dog eyes.

She yanks out the discharge papers and sighs, "Sign here, here, and here to show you have refused medical care knowing your condition,"

I sign the all too familiar papers and with a last little scrawl, I'm free to go about as I choose.

"You know, when I said come visit me, this is not what I meant," She chuckles.

"Come on, you know you love me," I grin as I leave her to make my way towards the exit.

Suddenly, I'm stopped short as I bump into something hard. To be exact, Morgan's chest.

"Where do you think you're going?" He sighs, blocking my way.