Criminal Minds One Shots

Dark

My phone buzzed, and I felt around for it in the dark so it wouldn't wake Garcia sleeping next to me.  It was a text from Morgan.

'Reid needs you.  Nightmare.'

Not again.  I sent back a succinct, 'Coming.' and then slipped out of my sleeping bag, pulling a sweatshirt on over the loose T-shirt and shorts I was wearing for pajamas. 

I turned my phone off and dropped it by my stuff an then slid my feet into my flip-flops and quietly left the tent, zipping it closed behind me.  I stole across the site to where the boys' tents were set up, giving Morgan a nod as he passed me on the way back to our tent.  I unzipped the entrance to Reid and Morgan's tent, quietly stepping inside and sliding off my shoes right by the entrance before I zipped it closed.

It was dark but I could see Morgan's wrinkled sleeping bag lying empty next to the shifting bundle that was Reid obscured by his own sleeping bag.

He moaned in his sleep like something was upsetting him but then started thrashing hi arms and kicking his legs, shouting, "No!" and struggling as if an invisible creature were attacking him.

"Hey, Spencer," I said, shaking his shoulder roughly.

He startled awake with a yell, sitting up and fighting off the sleeping bag twisted around him.

"Spencer, stop, it's okay," I said softly, pulling the tangled coverings off him.

He stared at me in the dark, panting for breath before suddenly asking, "Where's Morgan?"

"With Garcia in my tent.  He text me when you started..." I trailed off, he knew what I meant.

He heaved a sigh and dropped his head in his hands, mumbling, "Sorry."

"What was it about?" I asked him.

He shook his head and tried his best to explain, "Someone was attacking me, trying to get to you or maybe it was my mom.  I don't know, they just kept clawing at me and there was blood everywhere, and their eyes were like black holes.  I could see all the people they'd killed trapped in their eyes, and there was another girl being dragged in, but before I could save her I had to fight them off and..." he trailed off and then muttered, "It was so dark and terrifying, and there was nothing I could do."

"Hey," I said.

He looked at me.

"It's okay, it's not real," I told him evenly.

He breathed a sigh and nodded, slowly relaxing.

"Come on, I'll stay with you.  Go back to sleep," I insisted, rearranging the sleeping bag, and at my request he lay back down, glancing at me in the dark.

I settled down next to him, my head on his shoulder, one arm against his side and the other across his chest.  Warmth seeped through his T-shirt, and I could feel the steady thumping of his heart as it's beat slowed to normal, my arm rising and falling ever-so-slightly in time to his breath.