Coming Home

#4: Reunited

Part 4

Sophie~

The mere minutes that I was forced to wait on the plane after we landed in the Portland airport were probably the worst of my life. Spencer was barely ten minutes from where I was standing but still I had to sit, my knee still bouncing at a hundred miles an hour. Just as soon as we were allowed to leave the plane I grabbed my single small bag from my feet and rushed out, ignoring the groans and swears from the other passengers that I pushed by. As quickly as I could, I made my way outside and was about to text JJ when I heard someone calling my name.

"Sophie? Sophia LaRuz?" yup. Definitely my name, but coming from someone's voice that I couldn't even see yet. Nevertheless I jogged toward the sound.

"That's me! I'm right here! Oh, you must be Emily and Derek." Finally I found them. I reached out to shake hands, but Spencer's voice in my head was almost like an alarm going off.

"You know it's actually safer to-"

"To kiss, we know" Derek laughed as he retracted his hand and instead reached for my bag which I gladly let him take.

"I'm sorry he didn't get the chance to tell you about me himself," I hopped into the back of their government SUV and they turned on the lights to escape the traffic.

"We always thought that we would wait until we were sure, but I guess in your line of work it doesn't really go like that, does it. Well in my line of work too, I suppose, someone's life is always on the line. I guess I had just gotten used to it being in a more familiar setting."

After five minutes of driving with them I was already pouring myself out to them. They were Spencer's best friends, his family, and I knew I would be safe with them. The slight slow in my voice and in all of my various nervous tics made it clear to me. I had never met these people once in my life, but they were my family too.

The familiar sights from my childhood surrounded me but in such a new context it was almost funny. The last time I was in this city was when my grandmother was dying. In the very same hospital where Spencer is.

"Is he still alive?" I had held that question off for as long as I could, but I needed to know before I went.

"Yes. yes, and he is staying that way I promise you."

"I'm a doctor, remember? The kind that sees bullet wounds and operates on them all the damn time. I know that you can't possibly promise me that." I felt bad for saying it the moment after it came out but Emily looked back at me from the front seat like she understood.

"You're right. But what I can promise you is that Spencer is a fighter. Something I'm sure you know. He won't give up on us, especially not before he gets a chance to see you"

Derek pulled up into the ambulance bay right next to another black government SUV, and for the second time in the past two hours I threw myself out of the backseat and rushed for the entrance.

"Excuse me ma'am can I help you?" a confused looking nurse in grape purple scrubs approached me as I ran into the ER.

"She's with us, FBI we're looking for Spencer Reid, he was brought in about two hours ago?"

"You'll want to head up to trauma surgery, floor three west wing." I swear I have never gone up a flight of stairs faster in my life. The two agents followed me to the stairwell that I remembered from the last time I was here and jogged behind me as I sprinted up them. Once we got to the right floor I stopped at the door. In reality I know that whether or not I enter this door is not going to change the outcome of what lies behind it. But in this moment right now, thinking he's alive, that's what has gotten me through for the past few hours. If it turns out that he's dead, that I came back to this horrible place just to be here for yet another reason that I should have never come back home. That would kill me.

"Spencer Reid, I'm looking for Spencer Reid, where is he?" Finally I Pushed open the door to find JJ at the nurses station looking probably at least half of how terrified I was.

"JJ?"

"Oh my god, Sophie? His phone broke, I never got a picture of you but- wait, have I seen you before?" I chuckled, usually Spencer was the one pulling memories out of thin air like that but I guess he wasn't the only one on this team with a good memory.

"I uh, I actually helped patch you and him up a while back, that's how we met. I'm sorry, where's Spence? I just, I need to see him, and no one told me where he was shot, so. Is he on this floor, or did they evacuate him somewhere else, because I swear if I can't see him right now I'll probably - I'll probably- I don't even know. Is he here?"

More suddenly than I think either she or I were expecting my panic from before came flooding back knowing that he was close. He was hurt and he was close. She didn't say another word but instead just put a hand on my shaking elbow and guided me toward a room. It was dark. All of the lights were off but for the ones from the IV pumps and the faint glow from a street facing window.

And finally there he was. Laying there right in front of me. Eyes closed, breathing shallow, and pale. Upon first sight of him I let out a strangled sob and put a hand over my mouth to stop it. I put an arm out like I was trying to catch myself and Derek thankfully took the hint and placed me in a chair right next to his bed. I didn't even cry this hard when JJ first called me, over three hours ago. These were tears that were effortless. I could barely even comprehend that I was crying but for the fact that suddenly all of my air was gone.

Spencer~

My eyes were closed but for some reason I could tell it was night. Maybe it was the lack of cars outside that told me that, but in Maine there were never as many cars as in DC anyways. My hearing came back first and I heard the beeping from the monitor next to my head. Steady. The beeping is steady. So I'm alive then, that's good. But then after that I heard footsteps, ones that I could recognise from anywhere. It was her, it was Sophie. She must have been wearing her hightops because whenever she stepped forward with one foot there was a little squeak from the rubber like there always was. I heard her gasp for breath and not receive any as Morgan guided her to the chair beside me. She cried and cried. The sound made my heart break. She was right there, right next to me but my eyes wouldn't open. With all of the very little strength left in my body I threw my hand in her direction. What felt like a strong large movement to me, was just a twitch to them, but she noticed. Of course she noticed. She took my hand in hers and rubbed it while she cried out, coaxing me, or pleading me rather, to open my eyes. So I did. But I almost wish I hadn't, the picture before me of the love of my life slumped like all of the joy had been drained from her as she cried was something that I knew I would never forget. The look of fear in her eyes was one I recognized, one that clouded any thoughts but of the person they were for. They were for me, her tears and her pain, and all of her fear. It was for me.

~~~

this and part three are both now posted on my Tumblr.

*i do not own any Criminal Minds Characters