Criminal Minds One Shots

I Shot Her

A gunshot sounded through the small hospital room, but it did little to deter the fight between McDowell and the male orderly that had just tried to kill Reid by overdosing him with the wrong medication.  McDowell swung her fist, hitting the man square in the temple, and he went down.  They could all hear the painful crack as his head struck the linoleum tiles, but he was out.

Morgan pressed two fingers to the man's neck and then called security.  The orderly was fine, but someone had to get him out of there before he woke up with a severe grudge.

"You all right, Rookie?" Morgan asked.  He stood and glanced at McDowell.

"Fine."  She panted to catch her breath as she straightened up but then frowned, pressing a hand to her side.  She let out a sharp yell and drew it away, her fingers covered in blood.

"Easy, kid."  She had started swaying and Morgan put a hand out to steady her, but she dropped, unconscious before Morgan had a chance to catch her.

"Charlie!" Reid moved to get out of the hospital bed, but Garcia finally unfroze and dropped Reid's gun--that she had fired and evidently hit McDowell--and grabbed his shoulder with a gentle but urgent, "No, no, don't do that."

"Pretty Boy, I can't keep both of you off the floor at once.  Stay there."

Reid did, bracing his hands on the edge of the mattress, his bare feet dangling a few inches above the floor.  

Two security guards and a nurse finally made it to the room upon hearing the commotion not even five minutes ago.  They left just as quickly as they'd arrived, but they took McDowell and the orderly, both on gurneys, with them.  Morgan followed to make sure everyone kept the facts straight, leaving Reid and Garcia alone.

Garcia was shaking, tears streaming down her face.

"Garcia--" Reid's placation was halted by Garcia's flat, "I shot her."

"What?"

"I shot her.  I was aiming for that guy, but then she stepped in the way and hit him and I shot her instead and now she's going to die and it's all my fault."  Her words tumbled out of her mouth like the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Penelope, it was an accident.  It was probably just a graze."  His words were to reassure her as much as him.

Despite the adrenaline rush that accompanied getting attacked in your hospital room, thanks to the pain medication he was on for the gunshot wound in his neck, everything was still fuzzy.  He hadn't fully seen, or even realized, the extent of what had happened until after.  Calculations couldn't help him when he wasn't lucid enough to do them anyways.

"Are you sure?  What if she doesn't wake up?  What if she does wake up and refuses to speak to me ever again?  You know she holds grudges."  Garcia flitted her red-rimmed eyes nervously to Reid's face as she spouted her anxieties.

Reid waited for her to stop speaking.  "I promise you, everything will be okay."

She sniffled.  "You sure?"

"Yes."  His voice was bolder than he was feeling.

Garcia gave a stiff nod and then wrapped Reid in a hug before turning back into a mother hen, insisting he get some rest.